We are looking at the LORDSHIP of Christ Jesus who put aside His Deity as the LORD of hosts to put on the anointed one of promise as the promise Messiah of Israel or as the Greek term shows us the Christ of GOD. Within Whom the fullness of the GOD Head dwelt within when He received the baptism of repentance of John the Baptist's assignment. Jesus being the last in the line of Israel's Prophet King David and the one like onto Moses and carried Moses' anointing as being a man approved of GOD to bring redemption to Israel, but Israel said that it did not wont Him to be their King. This also being of prophecy. Today I will look at the pre-eminence of Christ.....for all of the old testament has Him in the form of Jehovah, Adoni or just Yehovah with His many and varied titles, upon Whom the prophets and the righteous ones knew in substance as their provider of what they needed at the time and place of the need. But before I get into that I will look at Pastor Hoekstra's teaching on Grace and the language of Grace all being accomplished in and through the anointed one, Christ the LORD. Who is and Lives His Life within me, as He is to do within you, for it is no longer the I of sin that rules me, but the I of His Grace based on faith and righteousness active within me. I would like to share from Norman Grubbs (But at this moment I have nothing of his to place herein.) and his revelation of the Holy One now ruling from within our heart and soul in His divine kingdom that is eternal in the heavens and is made without human hands but GOD's, as the LORD. We being conjoined to Him Who is the Father of spirit's in His Salvation. It is now late in the PM of this day and I am adding what Norman Grubbs has revealed in his post, at the end of this posting.
"Give, the Language of Grace"
By Pastor Hoekstra
"I have written more boldly to you on some points . . . because of the grace given to me by God . . . I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus." (Romans 15:15 and 1Corinthians 1:4)
"The Grace of GOD (which produces boldness in those who live by it) is a gift from GOD. "I have written more boldly to you on some points . . . because of the grace given to me by God." In fact, "give" is basic to the language of grace.
When Paul began his first letter to the believers in Corinth, he emphasized this truth. "I thank my God always concerning you for the Grace of GOD which was given to you by Christ Jesus." This is the starting point for all of the work of GOD in human hearts. The initial work of salvation is by the gift of GOD's Grace. None of it was produced by the work of man. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the Gift of GOD, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). This same pattern of the giving of Grace is true concerning every good thing that GOD wants to accomplish in receptive man. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). This alone bugle's the natural, literal, earthy mans mind. That is why we are to become born from above through our re-birthing of the hidden man of GOD's spirit within each of us. As first spoken of after man was separated from our Father of spirits in a death of that one and the same spirit in Genesis 3:15.
Whatever GOD wants to do in the family of man is by His Grace, must be given to us by Him. This is true concerning eternal life. "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish" (John 10:28). This also pertains to the Holy Spirit in our lives. "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever" (John 14:16). It is also true concerning spiritual gifts. "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all . . . But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift" (1Corinthians 12:7 and Ephesians 4:7). This pattern applies to spiritual rest and peace as well. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest . . . Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you" (John 11:28; 14:27). When it comes to the greatest matter of all (getting to know the Lord better), GOD must give to us what is required for such growth: "that the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (Ephesians 1:17). All of these precious benefits of Grace are from GOD, and are a result of His giving of His Grace into our lives.
Will the giving heart of GOD ever cease toward us? We need never fear that GOD will be tire of giving us Grace. "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32)."
The Pre-eminence of Christ,
Matthew 3:11-12 [John the Baptist is speaking] "I baptize you with water for repentance, but He Who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." [Acts 2:31]
John 3:31-36; 13:12-30, Acts 2:29-36 (John the Baptist is speaking) "He Who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He Who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony. Whoever receives His testimony sets His seal to this, that GOD is true. For He Whom GOD has sent utters the words of GOD, for HE gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of GOD remains on him.*"
*GOD's wrath is both within natural earthy man and it can also come upon both the unsaved and saved, unredeemed man, even the man who is in GOD's Salvation it can only come upon him. As a firey dart of the evil one, which he now has the power to resist because the LORD's grace is our sufficiency because we draw His strength in our weakness.
John 13:12-20 "When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, am your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, 'He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me(in Psalm 41:9).' I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am HE. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One Who sent Me."
Acts 2:29-36 [Peter is speaking] "Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that GOD had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the (Messiah) Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. (in 2Samuel 7:12f, Psalm 89:3f) This Jesus GOD raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of GOD, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, HE has poured (given) out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, "'The LORD said to My Lord, "Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool (Psalm 110:1)."' Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that GOD has made Him both LORD and Christ, this Jesus Whom you crucified."
Romans 14:5-9 "One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to GOD, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to GOD. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the LORD's. For to this end Christ died and lives again, that He might be LORD both of the dead and of the living."
Colossians 1:15-20 "He is the image of the invisible GOD, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And HE (the LORD) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And HE is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything HE might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of GOD was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself are all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross."
Hebrews 1:1-4 "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, GOD spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days HE has spoken to us by His Son, Whom HE appointed the Heir of all things, through Whom also HE created the world. He is the expressed radiance of the glory of GOD and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become much more superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs."
Hebrews 3:1-6, 8:1-6 "Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, Who was faithful to Him Who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is GOD.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over GOD's house as a Son. And we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope."
Hebrews 8:1-6 "Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the LORD set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the Law. They serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by GOD, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant HE mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises."
Revelation 1:9-11 "I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of GOD and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "I AM Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and What you see, Write in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."
Romans
By Norman P. Grubb
"Well, now we will finish briefly those last chapters of Romans. We see that we move right out of the “inner” to the “outer” now. Because the whole purpose of God is that we might be in an “inner” relationship by which He communicates Himself out from us to others. So we are in this third stage, which we call the Fatherhood stage, the Priesthood stage, the Ascended stage when it is He, as a Spirit, coming through us, reproducing Himself in others, so that others become expressions of Christ, even as by infinite grace, we have become. We saw all of Paul’s heart concern with his own people.
We start at home beginning at Jerusalem. So, we will start with a heart concern and a purpose, which has a burden in it until we can replace the burden by the assurances of God for those with whom we are personally connected. That is where this outflow begins. It begins in the ninth chapter, when Paul says he would give up his own hope of heaven, if through grace he could be the agent by which his own people could find their hopes in the grace of God. Then it turns his intercession into an inner assurance. He had to find a stabilization to it, so he went through this magnificent presentation of the total Sovereignty of God, which could only be accepted by faith, not by reason. It shows that we have to give up our own opinions and accept God’s totality in evil and good—that God is meaning evil as He is meaning good. And, then as we move in by faith we can understand and explain this. We can see that the meaning of evil is only this negative necessity which prepares us to find the positive—the positive being the free Grace of God—and that conditions us to find that we are in need of the grace of God. Therefore, we see in the end that we are all hated Esaus if we remain in our fallen condition. But, that is not real. It is hate because it had to be hate in that condition. The real is underneath; this other is sort of a surface hate. The real underneath is always the Eternal Love of God.
Then we find that grace has always been a free fact. So that, through Jesus Christ every human being can be a Jacob, who is God’s precious person, through faith. We see that His determined purposes are fulfilled both in our lost condition and our saved condition. We move in by faith which means that we transfer ourselves from our own false self affirmations and do what Paul did. “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” And then we move into faith; then we change from being Esaus to being Jacobs. Paul traced that through and finally says, “There is something special about those people through whom we knew Jesus Christ. There couldn’t have come a Jesus Christ unless there was a Living God Who had certain holy standards presented by laws, so that we understand that we are sinners. We had to have the Law to find the knowledge of the Law in order to find the knowledge of sin, even though they misused the Law, although certain ones did not. But, it has prepared the way and the possibility of a Savior.
When the Savior came, He was a Jew. So among the Jews came our Jew-Messiah. Then He fulfilled His course through this strange obstinate way in which they themselves slew their own Messiah for our sakes, as it were, that the world of the Gentiles might have a Savior, and yet the Gentiles are only saved through the Jews. Paul was a Jew. All the Apostles were Jews. So, the whole outbirth of this church of Jesus Christ has a Jewish basis, an Israelist basis. So, it is right that we should have a respect, a thankfulness, a special love for the people who humanly we wouldn’t love. Humanly the world despises the Jews for many reasons, but we don’t see it. We see them as God’s Chosen People. And so, with Paul in intercession he is able to see through. Probably we couldn’t see through unless we have this intercessory burden, that he was able to see through to the finality—that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Num. 23:19)—that God has ultimate purpose for the Jewish race. They have been special agents of God. Then he said, “All Israel will be saved.” We can’t wholly explain that, yet. He is linked first with the completion of the work of Grace among the Gentiles—until the full number of the Gentiles come into the fold—then Israel will move back into the fold. In some way our mercy will bring mercy to them."
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