Hebrews 11:12a
"Therefore sprang there even of one, (one man, Abraham) and him as good as dead,…"
Because he was one hundred. That’s how old Abraham was when Isaac is born. Even in that period of time it was past the age of normal childbearing. All right, so "him as good as dead." Now finishing the verse.
Hebrews 11:12b
"…so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable."
Now I’m sure that that’s not a play on words. It’s just simply to show us that the number of people that came from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were such a multitude. Now again, do you realize that the Hebrew people who had been scattered into every nation under heaven for the last, you might say, 2,600 years, going back to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity - they have been scattered out amongst all the nations of the world. They should have disappeared. They should have just simply been assimilated into the other nations of people, by intermarriage and what have you. But they have not been so assimilated because they've hung upon their Jewishness and NOT on God's revelation of Himself both in and through His Son, Christ Jesus. For even Ignatius in the Epistle to the Magnesians tells them to NOT return to their Jewishness and Judaism, NOW dead (chapter 11 of this Epistle). Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of John. So, As like with Moses when he was told by God to remove the tabernacle out side the camp because of their hardness of heart as seen in Exedus 33:7. Now this tabernacle was the tent of meeting where Moses sat as judge over the nation and was a prefiguring of Jesus Christ the Messiah being executed outside the city walls of Jerusalem as a testimony of God's judgment of Judaism. Now I might encourage those who maybe of interest to get a copy of the Epistle to the Ephesians written by Ignatius and study it closely.
But because of these promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob there, they are back in the land tonight. The world can’t comprehend it. But the little Nation of Israel is there because God has kept them under His wing, even though they’re there in unbelief and lawlessness. I wouldn’t doubt but that there are more almost agnostic, if not atheistic Hebrews in Israel than believers of any sort. But God has kept them in spite of all of their adversity. They have not intermarried to the place that they lose their identity and they’re still God’s “covenant nation” or are they? And I don’t think people stop to analyze that. That a little nation of only an average of 10 million people should have disappeared. They should have just gone out into the various nations by intermarriage and lost their identity. But they didn’t. And there they are. A Hebrew is a Hebrew is a Hebrew. Even though they're steeped in unbelief of God's Word. Why? Is my question.
I saw on TV a National Geographic program. Where a Jewish community clear up in the boondocks of Siberia and one someplace in North Africa. They have their Synagogue and they have been practicing Judaism for centuries. Just a little pocket of them. Well, that’s the way it’s been all the way around the world. And they have kept their identity. All right, so here it is. Verse 13 now.
Hebrews 11:13a
"These all died in (what?) faith,…"
They never stopped believing that this Abrahamic promise was going to be fulfilled through this nation of people coming from these three men. All right, they didn’t receive the promises. Not on this earth. For they through their sufferings show that the city and land was still a far off as yet unseen unoccupied by them, a city who's designer and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:13b
"…not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
Why? Well, as yet they didn’t have a designated homeland. They did not have a designated king or government or constitution. They are just simply held together by God’s invisible power. But the Hebrew people did not understand this as they wanted what they wanted and that was physical, material and a land in which to live and not just occupy as their own. Some place along the time of their captivity in Egypt they lost sight of these things, as God had warned. But nevertheless, they’ve always survived as a nation of people. All right now then, verse 14.
Hebrews 11:14
"For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country."
Friday, December 14, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part CCLXVII
Hebrews 11:10a
"For he…" Abraham - because of that Abrahamic Covenant. That the Abrahamic Covenant in a nutshell, was that out of Abraham would come a nation of people. Not necessarily of the Hebrews only but rather a new creation of spiritually alive or awakened people wholly of God's position. For those who by way of choice remain on the milk of the word ie..our first estate in redemption. And one day God would move them into a strip of land that He had promised and deeded to Abraham. Then someday in the future, of course never setting dates, that someday in the future He would provide their government in the Person (Christ as) their King.
So all of the Old Testament then, from Genesis chapter 12 on up until the New Testament opens up in the book of Acts around the 8th chapter, is looking forward to that coming promised King. As I mentioned, they became a nation of people when they were in Egypt in slavery. And maybe we should go look at the verse. Come all the way back to Genesis chapter 46, and let’s start with verse 1. And of course, we’re up to the time of Jacob, and his son Joseph is already in Egypt, and Pharaoh has made him second to him over the land and agriculture.
Genesis 46:1-3a
"And Israel (the man Jacob) took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, (which is down in the Negev or South of Jerusalem) and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I." And He said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt;…" Now you remember where God told Isaac what? Don’t go to Egypt. Sojourn in the land of promise and I will bless you. So it was a forbidden territory to go down into Egypt. But now you see, God in His Sovereignty, He can do this, He changed the course of events. Which He never does unless there's a divine purpose and reason for it. This is as it should be for God can and often does change things because He is God and does what He does because He IS who He IS. Now He tells Jacob:
Genesis 46:3b
"…fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there (down in Egypt) make of thee a great nation:"
See how plain this is. Now they were down in Egypt then another 215 years. There's a parallel here, remember Noah and his time of preperation as a witness of future things not yet seen or known. That’s a long time. See I’m afraid, too many times, people do not take time in the Scriptures to get the full impact because we look at the whole period of 6,000 years and consequently we think 200 is just a drop in the bucket. But, 200 years is 200 years. That’s a long time. Look what America has done in the last hundred, let alone two hundred. And so, 215 years from the time that Jacob goes down into Egypt until Moses brings them out (this Abraham started in his first visit for there were given 430 years accredited to him as being in Egypt), and they are now several million people. I've said from six to seven million. And they were the largest individual nation group in the whole Middle East. And so they were a great nation of people, all because of Abraham’s response of faith in obedience. Now back to Hebrews chapter 11, and verse 10.
Hebrews 11:10
"For he looked for a city (a city of which this King would be ruling and reigning) which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Now, of course, the book the Bible and the Revelation hadn’t been written yet and so that gorgeous city foursquare had not been even mentioned anywhere in Scripture. So Abraham was looking forward to this city - that when God would literally rule on the planet and He would be in control, it would be Heaven on earth or so most of those in Judaism thought. Religion as we know and understand it thinks this same thing to this very date, not knowing or understanding the secret things of God. That’s why it’s called then "the Gospel of the Kingdom" because Heaven would come down on earth in the Person of the King. Well, all that was out in the future from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s day, but they looked forward to its day by faith. How could they have done this unless God had spoken to them about it, He had to reveal the secret to them and then sworn them to secrecy. All right, now verse 11.
Hebrews 11:11
"Through faith also Sara (the wife of Abram) herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child (when?) when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised."
It was a miraculous birth. They were way beyond the age of childbearing. But God, in His Sovereignty brought it about and so she was delivered when she was past age because of Abraham's trusting His faithfulness. She to had to receive of the Lord a teaching or maybe many teachings as we just don't know the number because the Bible leaves all this unsaid or revealed.
Your going to probably get tired of hearing me hammer on faith, but remember, this is what God is looking for. God wants people who will receive from Him in receptivity then believe what He says. And it’s just a matter of responding to His Sovereignty - to say, "Yes, God I receive and believe you. I believe every word You say and have said." That’s pleasing to His ears. All right, that’s the whole idea, how God responds to the trusting of human kind which through many trails produces His faith in us. Now verse 12. So because of the faith of Abraham and Sarah:
Hebrews 11:12
"Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable."
"For he…" Abraham - because of that Abrahamic Covenant. That the Abrahamic Covenant in a nutshell, was that out of Abraham would come a nation of people. Not necessarily of the Hebrews only but rather a new creation of spiritually alive or awakened people wholly of God's position. For those who by way of choice remain on the milk of the word ie..our first estate in redemption. And one day God would move them into a strip of land that He had promised and deeded to Abraham. Then someday in the future, of course never setting dates, that someday in the future He would provide their government in the Person (Christ as) their King.
So all of the Old Testament then, from Genesis chapter 12 on up until the New Testament opens up in the book of Acts around the 8th chapter, is looking forward to that coming promised King. As I mentioned, they became a nation of people when they were in Egypt in slavery. And maybe we should go look at the verse. Come all the way back to Genesis chapter 46, and let’s start with verse 1. And of course, we’re up to the time of Jacob, and his son Joseph is already in Egypt, and Pharaoh has made him second to him over the land and agriculture.
Genesis 46:1-3a
"And Israel (the man Jacob) took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, (which is down in the Negev or South of Jerusalem) and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I." And He said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt;…" Now you remember where God told Isaac what? Don’t go to Egypt. Sojourn in the land of promise and I will bless you. So it was a forbidden territory to go down into Egypt. But now you see, God in His Sovereignty, He can do this, He changed the course of events. Which He never does unless there's a divine purpose and reason for it. This is as it should be for God can and often does change things because He is God and does what He does because He IS who He IS. Now He tells Jacob:
Genesis 46:3b
"…fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there (down in Egypt) make of thee a great nation:"
See how plain this is. Now they were down in Egypt then another 215 years. There's a parallel here, remember Noah and his time of preperation as a witness of future things not yet seen or known. That’s a long time. See I’m afraid, too many times, people do not take time in the Scriptures to get the full impact because we look at the whole period of 6,000 years and consequently we think 200 is just a drop in the bucket. But, 200 years is 200 years. That’s a long time. Look what America has done in the last hundred, let alone two hundred. And so, 215 years from the time that Jacob goes down into Egypt until Moses brings them out (this Abraham started in his first visit for there were given 430 years accredited to him as being in Egypt), and they are now several million people. I've said from six to seven million. And they were the largest individual nation group in the whole Middle East. And so they were a great nation of people, all because of Abraham’s response of faith in obedience. Now back to Hebrews chapter 11, and verse 10.
Hebrews 11:10
"For he looked for a city (a city of which this King would be ruling and reigning) which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Now, of course, the book the Bible and the Revelation hadn’t been written yet and so that gorgeous city foursquare had not been even mentioned anywhere in Scripture. So Abraham was looking forward to this city - that when God would literally rule on the planet and He would be in control, it would be Heaven on earth or so most of those in Judaism thought. Religion as we know and understand it thinks this same thing to this very date, not knowing or understanding the secret things of God. That’s why it’s called then "the Gospel of the Kingdom" because Heaven would come down on earth in the Person of the King. Well, all that was out in the future from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s day, but they looked forward to its day by faith. How could they have done this unless God had spoken to them about it, He had to reveal the secret to them and then sworn them to secrecy. All right, now verse 11.
Hebrews 11:11
"Through faith also Sara (the wife of Abram) herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child (when?) when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised."
It was a miraculous birth. They were way beyond the age of childbearing. But God, in His Sovereignty brought it about and so she was delivered when she was past age because of Abraham's trusting His faithfulness. She to had to receive of the Lord a teaching or maybe many teachings as we just don't know the number because the Bible leaves all this unsaid or revealed.
Your going to probably get tired of hearing me hammer on faith, but remember, this is what God is looking for. God wants people who will receive from Him in receptivity then believe what He says. And it’s just a matter of responding to His Sovereignty - to say, "Yes, God I receive and believe you. I believe every word You say and have said." That’s pleasing to His ears. All right, that’s the whole idea, how God responds to the trusting of human kind which through many trails produces His faith in us. Now verse 12. So because of the faith of Abraham and Sarah:
Hebrews 11:12
"Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable."
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part CCLXVI
Genesis 12:2-3a
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:…"
Do you see all those "I will’s?" Those are promises from God Himself to the man Abraham. And again as we’ve said so often, all you have to do is become a student of history and you’ll see that this has never fallen short. Every person who has chosen to Hear God speak through Christ Jesus His Son restored to them and now within them are the blessed as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were because they're counted as being the Righteousness of God. They are the son's of God through faith as these three Hebrew children were counted worthy. All right, but then the best promise of all is the last part. Its the spiritual blindness that comes upon a people or nation that opposes God to which the curse comes. This is true of the physical nation of Israel itself because they chose to deny God His place. They chose to deny God who was expressed through His Son as speaking to them and this has also become to stone of stumbling of the religious church world. Because they've become tied to the traditions of men and the book counting them of greater value than hearing God through His Son, the Spirit of Christ restored within us. The very point that Paul is making here in Hebrews. Because when this is properly understood then the rest of this verse comes into being:
Genesis 12:3b
"…and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Not just the one nation coming from his loins but every person on earth would one day feel the ramifications of this promise made to Abraham, which of course, was what? The coming of the Christ and His going to the cross. His death, burial, resurrection and ascension and all that was brought about because of the promises made to this man. And so, consequently, we can say that through Abraham, then, all the families of the earth were blessed.
Now we’re going to see where God repeats this same covenant, if I may call it that, to the next one on the scene, which is Isaac. And Isaac, too, is going to be given the covenant promises over in chapter 26. Because these promises were not for just one nation but were destined for all man kind through Christ Jesus as He alone would be the God Man or Immanuel, ie..God within man. How, by being the second Adam without sin or death operating in Him.
Genesis 26:1-3
"And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine THAT WAS IN THE DAYS OF Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar, And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, (now here it comes) and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father;"
Here He’s telling Isaac the same covenant that I made with your father Abraham, I’m bringing it on to you. All right, now let’s go up to the next generation and chapter 28. Here comes Jacob. Years are going by but God doesn’t change. God never forgets.
Genesis 28:1-4
"And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. (now here it comes) And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people: And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham."
The world today knows nothing of all this. The world today won’t even recognize anymore the authenticity of this Book. And if you try to tell them, well this is what the Scripture says, they’ll probably scornfully rebuke you and say, "Well, that Book doesn’t count." Well, I beg to differ. As I’ve said, this is the only Book on earth that can prove itself as the revealed Word of God and Will of God. And everything we’re seeing in the Middle East and indeed around the world today is fulfilling everything that was started back here in Genesis. How can they miss it?
But here it is, that all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with regard to that nation of people inheriting the land of Canaan or Palestine. God later would promise that they would be scattered into every nation under Heaven because of their disobedience, unbelief. But that someday in the future, He would what? Bring them back again. And then when people scoff and shake their heads and say "Ah, well that’s Old Testament," remind them that Paul writes the same thing in Romans 11, that just because God broke them off as the branch from the main trunk of the tree, and scattered them into the nations and then would grafted in the Gentiles by virtue of the Body of Christ and His Gospel of Grace as revealed in the New Covenant of Grace in the power of an Endless Life through re-birthing by the breath of God. He says, "Now take heed ie..listen closely." Don’t you get puffed up because the same God that could break off those original branches and graft in foreign branches can break you off and bring the Hebrews in and what’s the word? "Again." That’s what it says in Romans 11. "And I will graft them (the Hebrews) in again." Here's the secret this was not meant to be in the practical or material but rather totally Spiritual realm.
Hebrews 11:9
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same (what?) promise;"
God promised it and they all believed and then received it in a form yet unseen even though it took so many hindrances - my goodness, just stop and think of the confrontation between Jacob and Esau. Who would ever dream that, out of that, God would fulfill the promises, but He did. So Jacob has to flee for his life, never seeing his mother again. He goes on up into the area of Syria to her kinfolk and begins to put together a family, then, that brought about the twelve sons, which in turn brought out the twelve tribes called collectively Israel, but it isn’t until they end up down in Egypt in slavery that God says, "they will become for the first time a nation of people!"
Now back to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 10 and the spiritual side of things:
Hebrews 11:10
"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:…"
Do you see all those "I will’s?" Those are promises from God Himself to the man Abraham. And again as we’ve said so often, all you have to do is become a student of history and you’ll see that this has never fallen short. Every person who has chosen to Hear God speak through Christ Jesus His Son restored to them and now within them are the blessed as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were because they're counted as being the Righteousness of God. They are the son's of God through faith as these three Hebrew children were counted worthy. All right, but then the best promise of all is the last part. Its the spiritual blindness that comes upon a people or nation that opposes God to which the curse comes. This is true of the physical nation of Israel itself because they chose to deny God His place. They chose to deny God who was expressed through His Son as speaking to them and this has also become to stone of stumbling of the religious church world. Because they've become tied to the traditions of men and the book counting them of greater value than hearing God through His Son, the Spirit of Christ restored within us. The very point that Paul is making here in Hebrews. Because when this is properly understood then the rest of this verse comes into being:
Genesis 12:3b
"…and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Not just the one nation coming from his loins but every person on earth would one day feel the ramifications of this promise made to Abraham, which of course, was what? The coming of the Christ and His going to the cross. His death, burial, resurrection and ascension and all that was brought about because of the promises made to this man. And so, consequently, we can say that through Abraham, then, all the families of the earth were blessed.
Now we’re going to see where God repeats this same covenant, if I may call it that, to the next one on the scene, which is Isaac. And Isaac, too, is going to be given the covenant promises over in chapter 26. Because these promises were not for just one nation but were destined for all man kind through Christ Jesus as He alone would be the God Man or Immanuel, ie..God within man. How, by being the second Adam without sin or death operating in Him.
Genesis 26:1-3
"And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine THAT WAS IN THE DAYS OF Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar, And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, (now here it comes) and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father;"
Here He’s telling Isaac the same covenant that I made with your father Abraham, I’m bringing it on to you. All right, now let’s go up to the next generation and chapter 28. Here comes Jacob. Years are going by but God doesn’t change. God never forgets.
Genesis 28:1-4
"And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. (now here it comes) And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people: And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham."
The world today knows nothing of all this. The world today won’t even recognize anymore the authenticity of this Book. And if you try to tell them, well this is what the Scripture says, they’ll probably scornfully rebuke you and say, "Well, that Book doesn’t count." Well, I beg to differ. As I’ve said, this is the only Book on earth that can prove itself as the revealed Word of God and Will of God. And everything we’re seeing in the Middle East and indeed around the world today is fulfilling everything that was started back here in Genesis. How can they miss it?
But here it is, that all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with regard to that nation of people inheriting the land of Canaan or Palestine. God later would promise that they would be scattered into every nation under Heaven because of their disobedience, unbelief. But that someday in the future, He would what? Bring them back again. And then when people scoff and shake their heads and say "Ah, well that’s Old Testament," remind them that Paul writes the same thing in Romans 11, that just because God broke them off as the branch from the main trunk of the tree, and scattered them into the nations and then would grafted in the Gentiles by virtue of the Body of Christ and His Gospel of Grace as revealed in the New Covenant of Grace in the power of an Endless Life through re-birthing by the breath of God. He says, "Now take heed ie..listen closely." Don’t you get puffed up because the same God that could break off those original branches and graft in foreign branches can break you off and bring the Hebrews in and what’s the word? "Again." That’s what it says in Romans 11. "And I will graft them (the Hebrews) in again." Here's the secret this was not meant to be in the practical or material but rather totally Spiritual realm.
Hebrews 11:9
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same (what?) promise;"
God promised it and they all believed and then received it in a form yet unseen even though it took so many hindrances - my goodness, just stop and think of the confrontation between Jacob and Esau. Who would ever dream that, out of that, God would fulfill the promises, but He did. So Jacob has to flee for his life, never seeing his mother again. He goes on up into the area of Syria to her kinfolk and begins to put together a family, then, that brought about the twelve sons, which in turn brought out the twelve tribes called collectively Israel, but it isn’t until they end up down in Egypt in slavery that God says, "they will become for the first time a nation of people!"
Now back to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 10 and the spiritual side of things:
Hebrews 11:10
"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part CCLXV
Hebrews 11:9a
"By faith (by taking God at His Word) he (Abraham) sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,…"
And indeed it was. It was foreign territory to a Syrian down there in the Euphrates. The Canaanites were dwelling in the land. We’re going to be looking at the difference between the Canaanites and the Arabs. There is a big difference. The Canaanites were not Arabs. And so the Canaanites were in the land of promise and it was amongst the Canaanites that Abram or to be later Abraham and Sarah and then later on Isaac and Jacob....so forth - it was among the Canaanites that they sojourned. It was while as yet unseen sons and grandsons of Abraham, as they were still but the seed in his loins, when he first transversed todays Palestine and then went into Egypt, that the time clock started for the soon to come nation, traveled.
I think I pointed out, What did Abraham have to do as he moved across that country with his flocks and herds? Well, he would have to ask permission. "Can I run my flocks through your orchard, grizing lands...etc.?" And he would probably guarantee that they wouldn’t harm anything that was productive. "But, can we just have the grass?" Because he was a foreigner. He was a sojourner in a foreign land. Even though it was the land that God had promised to him. So you’ve got to keep all these things in your mind as you read about these things. But even Abraham saw that the physical lands were not what was ahead of him as Paul tells us here in Hebrews and elsewhere.
Hebrews 11:9b
"…dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:"
All right, so he "sojourned in a strange land" he was a pilgram, a gyptcy, only because he knew he could trust the God who told him to leave Ur. How do we come to trust some one? By way of getting to know them. Are they trust worthy or not, do they do what they've promised or do they just skip on down the road and forget it? Now, just to show you what patience that took to maintain that kind of faith, I can’t pinpoint it in Scripture so I’ll again just have to simply say, it’s my own personal feeling, that Abram was probably 40-50 years old when God first spoke to him in Ur of the Chaldees. Now, I think all of you know - how old was he when the promised son was born, that is Isaac? One hundred! So how many years did this man live day in and day out by trusting God faithfulness, waiting for the birth of that son? At least Fifty years.
Today we’re living in a time of instant gratification. I want it NOW! But Abraham waited fifty years before he finally got the son of promise, Isaac. So this is why he is such an example of faith and patience and integrity, that he was willing to just know that someday God is going to come through. He’s faithful. No, he like us had to have known more than is given to us. So, "he sojourned in the land, dwelling in tabernacles." Now what’s the other word for tabernacle? Tents. Well, what was the purpose? He couldn’t build a home of stone and concrete because he was just simply sojourning up and down the land, waiting for or looking for the city, a city not made by mans hands. But until it did appear, he was living in tents that were temporary abodes that could be taken up and moved. Much the same as God expects of us as we learn of Him with whom we have to do. We're to be as the wind that moves to trees but has NO one place as of yet to settle or call our home. We should feel uneasy or unsettled while we are alive on this earth as it is not our true home but is rather a place of like Abraham our sojourning.
"He was dwelling in tents with Isaac, and all the way on up into time of Jacob." Nothing is concrete yet so far as the promises are concerned. But they were all "heirs with him of the same promise." Now we’ve got to go back, don’t we? Let’s go back briefly to the Abrahamic Covenant itself. I’m not going to go into it in detail, but back in Genesis chapter 12, the Abrahamic Covenant. We’ve made the statement over and over. If you can’t understand the Abrahamic Covenant, then this Book is a dilemma. You can’t figure it out until you understand how all of this promises of a Messiah and how He to came about.
All right, Genesis chapter 12. I have to make reference that the very first promise of a coming Messiah was right after Adam and Eve fell and is recorded in Genesis 3:15 - where we have the promise of the coming of the "seed of the woman." But, for those first 2,000 years it just sort of laid there dormant. There was just nothing transpiring to get that seed growing. Even though God was talking to men such as Enoch, Methuselah and Noah. It was there, because Abraham comes out of one of the three sons of Noah, remember Shem? And God was in control of all that. But beginning with Abraham 2,000 years after Adam, 2,000 years before Christ, things are now going to start moving. Now here is the Abrahamic Covenant.
Genesis 12:1
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, (in chapter 11) Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will (sometime in the future) shew thee:"
See He doesn’t tell him here, for example, I’m going to send you up to the Mediterranean. He doesn’t tell him I’m going to send you up to the land of the Canaanites. No. He just says, "Leave Ur and go to a land that I will show you." Well now, this is all means of testing the man’s trust. Now here comes the promises, verse 2.
Genesis 12:2-3a
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:…"
"By faith (by taking God at His Word) he (Abraham) sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,…"
And indeed it was. It was foreign territory to a Syrian down there in the Euphrates. The Canaanites were dwelling in the land. We’re going to be looking at the difference between the Canaanites and the Arabs. There is a big difference. The Canaanites were not Arabs. And so the Canaanites were in the land of promise and it was amongst the Canaanites that Abram or to be later Abraham and Sarah and then later on Isaac and Jacob....so forth - it was among the Canaanites that they sojourned. It was while as yet unseen sons and grandsons of Abraham, as they were still but the seed in his loins, when he first transversed todays Palestine and then went into Egypt, that the time clock started for the soon to come nation, traveled.
I think I pointed out, What did Abraham have to do as he moved across that country with his flocks and herds? Well, he would have to ask permission. "Can I run my flocks through your orchard, grizing lands...etc.?" And he would probably guarantee that they wouldn’t harm anything that was productive. "But, can we just have the grass?" Because he was a foreigner. He was a sojourner in a foreign land. Even though it was the land that God had promised to him. So you’ve got to keep all these things in your mind as you read about these things. But even Abraham saw that the physical lands were not what was ahead of him as Paul tells us here in Hebrews and elsewhere.
Hebrews 11:9b
"…dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:"
All right, so he "sojourned in a strange land" he was a pilgram, a gyptcy, only because he knew he could trust the God who told him to leave Ur. How do we come to trust some one? By way of getting to know them. Are they trust worthy or not, do they do what they've promised or do they just skip on down the road and forget it? Now, just to show you what patience that took to maintain that kind of faith, I can’t pinpoint it in Scripture so I’ll again just have to simply say, it’s my own personal feeling, that Abram was probably 40-50 years old when God first spoke to him in Ur of the Chaldees. Now, I think all of you know - how old was he when the promised son was born, that is Isaac? One hundred! So how many years did this man live day in and day out by trusting God faithfulness, waiting for the birth of that son? At least Fifty years.
Today we’re living in a time of instant gratification. I want it NOW! But Abraham waited fifty years before he finally got the son of promise, Isaac. So this is why he is such an example of faith and patience and integrity, that he was willing to just know that someday God is going to come through. He’s faithful. No, he like us had to have known more than is given to us. So, "he sojourned in the land, dwelling in tabernacles." Now what’s the other word for tabernacle? Tents. Well, what was the purpose? He couldn’t build a home of stone and concrete because he was just simply sojourning up and down the land, waiting for or looking for the city, a city not made by mans hands. But until it did appear, he was living in tents that were temporary abodes that could be taken up and moved. Much the same as God expects of us as we learn of Him with whom we have to do. We're to be as the wind that moves to trees but has NO one place as of yet to settle or call our home. We should feel uneasy or unsettled while we are alive on this earth as it is not our true home but is rather a place of like Abraham our sojourning.
"He was dwelling in tents with Isaac, and all the way on up into time of Jacob." Nothing is concrete yet so far as the promises are concerned. But they were all "heirs with him of the same promise." Now we’ve got to go back, don’t we? Let’s go back briefly to the Abrahamic Covenant itself. I’m not going to go into it in detail, but back in Genesis chapter 12, the Abrahamic Covenant. We’ve made the statement over and over. If you can’t understand the Abrahamic Covenant, then this Book is a dilemma. You can’t figure it out until you understand how all of this promises of a Messiah and how He to came about.
All right, Genesis chapter 12. I have to make reference that the very first promise of a coming Messiah was right after Adam and Eve fell and is recorded in Genesis 3:15 - where we have the promise of the coming of the "seed of the woman." But, for those first 2,000 years it just sort of laid there dormant. There was just nothing transpiring to get that seed growing. Even though God was talking to men such as Enoch, Methuselah and Noah. It was there, because Abraham comes out of one of the three sons of Noah, remember Shem? And God was in control of all that. But beginning with Abraham 2,000 years after Adam, 2,000 years before Christ, things are now going to start moving. Now here is the Abrahamic Covenant.
Genesis 12:1
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, (in chapter 11) Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will (sometime in the future) shew thee:"
See He doesn’t tell him here, for example, I’m going to send you up to the Mediterranean. He doesn’t tell him I’m going to send you up to the land of the Canaanites. No. He just says, "Leave Ur and go to a land that I will show you." Well now, this is all means of testing the man’s trust. Now here comes the promises, verse 2.
Genesis 12:2-3a
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:…"
Monday, December 10, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part CCLXIV
Hebrews 11:9a
"By faith…"
By faith; by just simply believing what God has said, now I can comprehend that it was probably easier for the man to believe something when he had seen God, Who I’m sure came down in human form, as He did in Genesis 18. I think we’re all acquainted with that chapter. When the Lord and two angels came walking up the path and Abram ran to meet them, what did he do? Killed the fatted calf and they had a meal like you wouldn’t believe. And they ate. That was the Lord Himself in what we call a theophany - God in human form. And that happened periodically in the time of the Patriarchs and before. But to see it we have to be listening carefully to the words and language used also it does require the Holy Spirit in us to open our eyes or understanding.
Many times we have to look at these things logically and ask ourselves, "Why?" Because they didn’t have a written Word. Now just think about that. All the way from Adam until we get to Moses, there was no written Word from God. So how did He communicate with them? He appeared to them from time to time and He instructed them, and so maybe it was a little easier to believe what God said since they saw Him say it. But it’s the same God that speaks through this Book, ie..through His Son, Christ Jesus. And so now we’re under that same set of responsibilities - that we are to believe what God has said.
In fact, go back to Hebrews chapter 1 and this just confirms what I said. Hebrews chapter 1, right up there at verses 1 and 2 - and this is just exactly what we’re saying. And the very first word is what? "God." Remember God never changes. He’s been the same from eternity past and He will be into eternity future. He never changes. But He certainly changes, what is referred to over and over as, His modus operandi - His means of operating. In other words, He deals with us totally differently than He dealt with Adam and Eve, Abraham and Moses, and all the others. In this Age of Grace, under the writings of the Apostle Paul, He deals with us quite differently than all the others, yet still by faith.
All right, so here’s the whole idea. There was no written Word. There was no organized system of worship. Now that makes a big difference. All right, so now you come into the text:
Hebrews 1:1
"God, who at sundry (or various) times and in diverse (different) manners spake in time past unto the fathers (how?) by the prophets."
He come down and speak to the people, face-to-face like he did with Abraham, Adam and Eve or even Jacob. Then after Moses, He spoke through the prophets. Why? Because with Jacob there was a change take place, there from him on there seems to be two classes of people if I may use that language but none the less there were two separate groups of people; those of the world or material in nature and those who were to become spiritual in nature. Now how do we know this? By way of a name change Jacob (Hebrew) equates to the physical realm and Israel to the spiritual as the house which God rules but the Hebrews did not see this and as usual they being natural or carnal in their thinking combined them into one grouping and became the nation of Israel as a partially blinded people because of unbelief. Paul would later equate to them as such in Romans 11:25 at the end of his parenthetical clause which starts with chapter 9 of Romans dealing with Israel. Now verse 2, and here God changes things:
Hebrews 1:2
"Hath in these last days (that is since His first advent and the action of His vicarious death and ascension) spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom (the Son, Christ Jesus) also he made the worlds;"
When God speaks to us through the Son, that’s why the Apostle Paul then tells us that all of his revelations came directly from where? The ascended Lord. So when we read Paul’s Epistles now we realize that God is speaking to us through God the Son, Who in turn is inspiring this Apostle to write what we are to understand and believe for redemption and then our salvation, as He now works out our Salvation within us and it’s that much difference. All right, so these Patriarchs were still believers of what God said and when they responded to it, God in turn responds by calling them righteous. They were in right relationship with Him, they were set apart unto Him. Now in the same manor we're to be set apart to Him, how? Through death why a death because that is what happened in the garden when Adam fell into sin and death (separation from God), rebellion or lawlessness. By faith, ie...trusting God's word we are now made righteous by a living faith through Christ and the operation of the cross. Now back to chapter 11.
Hebrews 11:9
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:"
"By faith…"
By faith; by just simply believing what God has said, now I can comprehend that it was probably easier for the man to believe something when he had seen God, Who I’m sure came down in human form, as He did in Genesis 18. I think we’re all acquainted with that chapter. When the Lord and two angels came walking up the path and Abram ran to meet them, what did he do? Killed the fatted calf and they had a meal like you wouldn’t believe. And they ate. That was the Lord Himself in what we call a theophany - God in human form. And that happened periodically in the time of the Patriarchs and before. But to see it we have to be listening carefully to the words and language used also it does require the Holy Spirit in us to open our eyes or understanding.
Many times we have to look at these things logically and ask ourselves, "Why?" Because they didn’t have a written Word. Now just think about that. All the way from Adam until we get to Moses, there was no written Word from God. So how did He communicate with them? He appeared to them from time to time and He instructed them, and so maybe it was a little easier to believe what God said since they saw Him say it. But it’s the same God that speaks through this Book, ie..through His Son, Christ Jesus. And so now we’re under that same set of responsibilities - that we are to believe what God has said.
In fact, go back to Hebrews chapter 1 and this just confirms what I said. Hebrews chapter 1, right up there at verses 1 and 2 - and this is just exactly what we’re saying. And the very first word is what? "God." Remember God never changes. He’s been the same from eternity past and He will be into eternity future. He never changes. But He certainly changes, what is referred to over and over as, His modus operandi - His means of operating. In other words, He deals with us totally differently than He dealt with Adam and Eve, Abraham and Moses, and all the others. In this Age of Grace, under the writings of the Apostle Paul, He deals with us quite differently than all the others, yet still by faith.
All right, so here’s the whole idea. There was no written Word. There was no organized system of worship. Now that makes a big difference. All right, so now you come into the text:
Hebrews 1:1
"God, who at sundry (or various) times and in diverse (different) manners spake in time past unto the fathers (how?) by the prophets."
He come down and speak to the people, face-to-face like he did with Abraham, Adam and Eve or even Jacob. Then after Moses, He spoke through the prophets. Why? Because with Jacob there was a change take place, there from him on there seems to be two classes of people if I may use that language but none the less there were two separate groups of people; those of the world or material in nature and those who were to become spiritual in nature. Now how do we know this? By way of a name change Jacob (Hebrew) equates to the physical realm and Israel to the spiritual as the house which God rules but the Hebrews did not see this and as usual they being natural or carnal in their thinking combined them into one grouping and became the nation of Israel as a partially blinded people because of unbelief. Paul would later equate to them as such in Romans 11:25 at the end of his parenthetical clause which starts with chapter 9 of Romans dealing with Israel. Now verse 2, and here God changes things:
Hebrews 1:2
"Hath in these last days (that is since His first advent and the action of His vicarious death and ascension) spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom (the Son, Christ Jesus) also he made the worlds;"
When God speaks to us through the Son, that’s why the Apostle Paul then tells us that all of his revelations came directly from where? The ascended Lord. So when we read Paul’s Epistles now we realize that God is speaking to us through God the Son, Who in turn is inspiring this Apostle to write what we are to understand and believe for redemption and then our salvation, as He now works out our Salvation within us and it’s that much difference. All right, so these Patriarchs were still believers of what God said and when they responded to it, God in turn responds by calling them righteous. They were in right relationship with Him, they were set apart unto Him. Now in the same manor we're to be set apart to Him, how? Through death why a death because that is what happened in the garden when Adam fell into sin and death (separation from God), rebellion or lawlessness. By faith, ie...trusting God's word we are now made righteous by a living faith through Christ and the operation of the cross. Now back to chapter 11.
Hebrews 11:9
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:"
Sunday, December 9, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part CCLXIII
Continuing with our thought:
I’m always emphasizing, that it's not easy. We see it in cult people or we see people that are just so totally indoctrinated in a legalistics religion, or the name it claim it thing, easy belief, prosperity gospel, love gospel, and a host of other sicknesses that are out there and this makes it is so hard to just break away and say, "You mean, I don’t have to do anything but BELIEVE?" That’s exactly right! And of course a lot of people just can’t accept that. But, "if" Christ finished the work on the cross, and because it was finished He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High, then we have to take His word for it. Jesus said many times that we're to walk in His foot prints and there's no getting around it they all lead us to the cross, the grave, burial, resurrection and His ascension back to the Fathers right hand side in Heaven. Because God was in Christ doing the work and speaking His word to us through the God Man, Christ Jesus. And as the God Man He demonstrated in open view how to operate in His faith as our forerunner. For He is the author and finisher of all that is know of FAITH! He's the captain of it. There's noting glorious in that it requires an attitude of self-sacrifice and the willingness of a little child to let go and then to let God do what only He is able and more than willing to do.
This doesn’t mean that we just simply say, "Well, I believe" and then continue right on with our same old lifestyle (study Luke 21:34-35, 36 closely). No, we have to realize that when we become a believer of that finished work, or what we call Paul’s Gospel, that mandates a change in our lifestyle. And as the reference to scripture shown above for study we are not to be surfeiting, and in drunkenness caused by life's many distractions. We’re going to live lives, full of hope, and pleasing in His sight. And we’re going to seek His will in every aspect of life. And that’s all a follow-up to our believing and then being receptive of Him and His divine activities within us, again. And so I never want to leave folks with the idea, "Well, as long as I believe, I’m all right." Well, don’t take advantage of that because there are responsibilities that follow our believing. We're not bone idol or slothful or just standing still neither do we sin willfully nor draw back, we're held in account of the revelation when we've been given it and are under compulsion to share the truth to every one who will listen. Hoping that we may with Paul convince a few to accept Him and then do accordingly in the Light. And OH! by the way this change is or has nothing to do of us, in others words God alone does the work of perfecting this change all we are to do is to remain receptive.
But nevertheless, Hebrews, now as a main theme, is directed to the Hebrew-Christians who were having a hard time making a break out from religious legalism and the pressures of nationalism and maintaining this glorious Age of Grace. Consequently, as I’ve said over and over, you don’t find the plan of salvation as we present it, in the Epistle of Hebrews. In other words, if you’re leading someone to the Lord, you don’t go to the Epistle of Hebrews to show them how to be saved, it’s just not in here. But, like the Old Testament, all of these things are for our learning, our teaching. And for the believer now to come into the Epistle of Hebrews, we get all of this reinforcement of our trusting in His faithfulness and that’s the whole thrust.
All right now then, let’s continue our study in Chapter 11 - "the faith chapter", as it has been dubbed but is so much more when we truly listen to what it is saying. And again, it’s just to show us that these Old Testament people walked and lived and were saved by trusting Him because the majority of them knew Him even as we are too. But, here’s where we have to be careful. They didn’t place their trust in a finished work of the cross; it hadn’t happened yet. So what did they believe? What God said to them! It was God’s Word to them. And we’ve already covered the pre-flood people. And Noah is a good example. But before Noah there were a few in Seth's lineage who knew God and walked with Him because they taught Noah the ways or things of God. I need to build a time line which shows the overlapping of peoples lives because each generation overlapped the next and at times two or three and this is what we don't see in the scriptures. Even the prophets overlapped each other in fact we could say that there was a log jam of them at one point in time. But, the reality is that these people saw the end of days ie..Christ, only in a figure or shadow as the culmination of the things not yet seen as a present reality.
What did God tell Noah? "There’s going to be a flood. I’m going to destroy the human race. Build an Ark for the saving of yourself and your house." Now believing what God said, what did Noah do? He built the Ark. A box or coffin. So all the way up through the Old Testament it has always been by trust and obedience, but not in that finished work of the cross as we experience today (and what God tells us to believe through the Apostle Paul’s writings), but rather in the Old Testament they believed what God told them in that day. He still requires our trust and obedience when we receive the inspiration of revelation of His word spoken to us through His Son who is our High Priest-King.
All right, now then as we come into verse 8, and like I said, this great epitome of faith, the man, Abraham, who was surrounded by idolatry which was all around him (though he himself did not bow to the idols that were in his fathers house nor did he have anything to do with the forms of religion) down there in the lower end of the Euphrates River. Remember, Joshua tells us his whole family was idol worshipers. The whole city was given over to idolatry, and God goes down, and I think person-to-person, like He did with Abraham more than once, confronted him. God said, "Abram I want you to leave all this, I want you to get away from this pagan environment. I want you to get out of your pagan family and go to a place that I’ll show you." He didn’t tell him that it would be Canaan. He just said, "Go to a place that I will show you." And what did Abraham do? He left. Why? Because he believed what God said, plus nothing. He wasn’t circumcised. There was no Law to keep. He just simply obeyed what God said and God counted it to him for what? Righteousness. See? He didn’t repent. He didn’t grovel. He just simply believed God and God reckoned him a righteous man. For he saw himself as a sojourner (ambassador) looking forward toward a land of promise who's designer and builder is God. And this what the Hebrew children did not understand because they did not see as their forefathers saw, IN Christ. The very thing they weren't allowed to speak or even write about in simple language. For if they did they were told to seal up the book or to eat the book. And it was this forward looking that Paul is here speaking of and calls faith looking toward the promised land, as not yet seen. Now verse 9.
Hebrews 11:9
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:"
I’m always emphasizing, that it's not easy. We see it in cult people or we see people that are just so totally indoctrinated in a legalistics religion, or the name it claim it thing, easy belief, prosperity gospel, love gospel, and a host of other sicknesses that are out there and this makes it is so hard to just break away and say, "You mean, I don’t have to do anything but BELIEVE?" That’s exactly right! And of course a lot of people just can’t accept that. But, "if" Christ finished the work on the cross, and because it was finished He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High, then we have to take His word for it. Jesus said many times that we're to walk in His foot prints and there's no getting around it they all lead us to the cross, the grave, burial, resurrection and His ascension back to the Fathers right hand side in Heaven. Because God was in Christ doing the work and speaking His word to us through the God Man, Christ Jesus. And as the God Man He demonstrated in open view how to operate in His faith as our forerunner. For He is the author and finisher of all that is know of FAITH! He's the captain of it. There's noting glorious in that it requires an attitude of self-sacrifice and the willingness of a little child to let go and then to let God do what only He is able and more than willing to do.
This doesn’t mean that we just simply say, "Well, I believe" and then continue right on with our same old lifestyle (study Luke 21:34-35, 36 closely). No, we have to realize that when we become a believer of that finished work, or what we call Paul’s Gospel, that mandates a change in our lifestyle. And as the reference to scripture shown above for study we are not to be surfeiting, and in drunkenness caused by life's many distractions. We’re going to live lives, full of hope, and pleasing in His sight. And we’re going to seek His will in every aspect of life. And that’s all a follow-up to our believing and then being receptive of Him and His divine activities within us, again. And so I never want to leave folks with the idea, "Well, as long as I believe, I’m all right." Well, don’t take advantage of that because there are responsibilities that follow our believing. We're not bone idol or slothful or just standing still neither do we sin willfully nor draw back, we're held in account of the revelation when we've been given it and are under compulsion to share the truth to every one who will listen. Hoping that we may with Paul convince a few to accept Him and then do accordingly in the Light. And OH! by the way this change is or has nothing to do of us, in others words God alone does the work of perfecting this change all we are to do is to remain receptive.
But nevertheless, Hebrews, now as a main theme, is directed to the Hebrew-Christians who were having a hard time making a break out from religious legalism and the pressures of nationalism and maintaining this glorious Age of Grace. Consequently, as I’ve said over and over, you don’t find the plan of salvation as we present it, in the Epistle of Hebrews. In other words, if you’re leading someone to the Lord, you don’t go to the Epistle of Hebrews to show them how to be saved, it’s just not in here. But, like the Old Testament, all of these things are for our learning, our teaching. And for the believer now to come into the Epistle of Hebrews, we get all of this reinforcement of our trusting in His faithfulness and that’s the whole thrust.
All right now then, let’s continue our study in Chapter 11 - "the faith chapter", as it has been dubbed but is so much more when we truly listen to what it is saying. And again, it’s just to show us that these Old Testament people walked and lived and were saved by trusting Him because the majority of them knew Him even as we are too. But, here’s where we have to be careful. They didn’t place their trust in a finished work of the cross; it hadn’t happened yet. So what did they believe? What God said to them! It was God’s Word to them. And we’ve already covered the pre-flood people. And Noah is a good example. But before Noah there were a few in Seth's lineage who knew God and walked with Him because they taught Noah the ways or things of God. I need to build a time line which shows the overlapping of peoples lives because each generation overlapped the next and at times two or three and this is what we don't see in the scriptures. Even the prophets overlapped each other in fact we could say that there was a log jam of them at one point in time. But, the reality is that these people saw the end of days ie..Christ, only in a figure or shadow as the culmination of the things not yet seen as a present reality.
What did God tell Noah? "There’s going to be a flood. I’m going to destroy the human race. Build an Ark for the saving of yourself and your house." Now believing what God said, what did Noah do? He built the Ark. A box or coffin. So all the way up through the Old Testament it has always been by trust and obedience, but not in that finished work of the cross as we experience today (and what God tells us to believe through the Apostle Paul’s writings), but rather in the Old Testament they believed what God told them in that day. He still requires our trust and obedience when we receive the inspiration of revelation of His word spoken to us through His Son who is our High Priest-King.
All right, now then as we come into verse 8, and like I said, this great epitome of faith, the man, Abraham, who was surrounded by idolatry which was all around him (though he himself did not bow to the idols that were in his fathers house nor did he have anything to do with the forms of religion) down there in the lower end of the Euphrates River. Remember, Joshua tells us his whole family was idol worshipers. The whole city was given over to idolatry, and God goes down, and I think person-to-person, like He did with Abraham more than once, confronted him. God said, "Abram I want you to leave all this, I want you to get away from this pagan environment. I want you to get out of your pagan family and go to a place that I’ll show you." He didn’t tell him that it would be Canaan. He just said, "Go to a place that I will show you." And what did Abraham do? He left. Why? Because he believed what God said, plus nothing. He wasn’t circumcised. There was no Law to keep. He just simply obeyed what God said and God counted it to him for what? Righteousness. See? He didn’t repent. He didn’t grovel. He just simply believed God and God reckoned him a righteous man. For he saw himself as a sojourner (ambassador) looking forward toward a land of promise who's designer and builder is God. And this what the Hebrew children did not understand because they did not see as their forefathers saw, IN Christ. The very thing they weren't allowed to speak or even write about in simple language. For if they did they were told to seal up the book or to eat the book. And it was this forward looking that Paul is here speaking of and calls faith looking toward the promised land, as not yet seen. Now verse 9.
Hebrews 11:9
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:"
Saturday, December 8, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part CCLXII
We've seen that mans works no matter how religious they maybe do not have any accounting or bearing with God. Because He sees only mans trusting of His faithfulness to do as He has spoken, merely as the historical reward of his well-pleasing faith. It is clear throughout scripture that God is not pleased by man’s “works” of righteousness, but only by faith that allows God to do what He wants to do (Isaiah 64:6; Philippians 3:8,9; Galatians 3:11-14), and that the divine commendation is based on such faithful availability. We through Christ's essence are to be receptive and then allow His activities to flow through Christ essence (as the vein that supports the branch and the sap as it feeds the vein and the branch where it produces the fruit) that is within us to those around us. For it is Christ alone who can give glory to the Father. Paul builds the account of those in Hebrew history who exemplified such faith in God's faithfulness to do as He had promised but who never received the promised end as this end is only realized in Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 11:8
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went."
Well, we’ve already talked about Abraham so we’re not going to stretch this. God didn’t pick Abraham up out of Ur of the Chaldees and supernaturally transport him over Canaan and give him a bird’s-eye-view, like even Moses had from Mount Nebo. And God didn’t take Abram out over Canaan and say, "Now Abraham if you believe me this is what I’m going to give you." No. God just simply told this man Abraham down there in the Euphrates Valley, "Leave your city, and your family. And go to a land that I will show you." Now that takes trust an obedience without questioning or doubting. How? He knew God! He wondered through a land that was not his own and looked forward to a city and land not yet seen signifying that even Canaan (Palestine) was not the land of promise.
That takes faith! He had to break with his family. He had to break with his business. He had to simply turn his back on everything and leave his homeland. That’s what trust has to do. All right, and so "he goes into a place which he should(not) afterward receive for an inheritance and Abraham obeyed." He did what God asked him to do, and that’s faith. "...and he went out not knowing whither he went." Keep in mind that all these examples are rehearsed for the sole purpose of strengthening the Palestinian Hebrew Christians faith to endure the hardships that were on the horizon as a forward looking faith to the greater reward. To keep the faith in Christ's working within them as they were already receptive of His workings. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him,” but the ultimate pleasure of God is not in the faith action itself, but in the fact that faith allows God’s Grace action to manifest His character and work. In his benedictory remarks, Paul prays that the Palestinian Hebrew Christians will allow God “to equip them in every good thing to do His will, working in them that which is pleasing to His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (13:21).
Now when he finally gets there which is the land of Canaan years and years later, he’s still operating by faith.
Hebrews 11:9a
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,…"
Which of course, God promised to him back there in Genesis chapter 15 and on. And so he, "lived by faith in the land of promise as in a strange country." Now what’s the lesson? That he was looking forward to the heavenly land that is to be realized in Christ Jesus, as promised.
You know Paul says in Romans that all these things back in the Old Testament were written for what purpose? Our learning. Right! And so what’s the lesson? Well, this is where you and I are. You and I were called out of the Ur of the lost estate or Egypt as an example of the world. We were snatched out of the slave market of sin, sickness and death. But when God transformed us and made us a believer, a receiver and declared us righteous, He didn’t take us to Heaven - be nice if He would! But He didn’t; He left us here. And so in the picture, where are we? We’re among the strangers. We’re amongst a hateful world. The world has always hated Christ-like ones, His disciples.
Now the Constitution fortunately has protected us thus far and for most of Western civilization their government has protected Christians. But you go into Sudan today, are Christians safe? Na! They’re dying by the thousands. Go into Indonesia. Are Christians safe? In Figi, you better believe that they are. It don't start this way there for they were a people of head hunters and killers of men. But in so most areas of the world, they’re living amongst a hateful enemy. And the only reason we don’t feel it is because our government guarantees our safety; but take that away and I think you and I would be shocked at how fast they would turn against us.
But here the picture is that Abraham was now dwelling amongst strangers. Oh, God deeded him the land in Genesis 15 but who was still occupying it? The Canaanites. So now you have to picture in your own mind, here comes this man Abraham with his flocks and his herds and his servants – what does he have to ask as he traverses the land? Permission. He would ask permission. "Can I bring my flocks on to your land? Can I bring my flocks into your orchards?" He had to because he was a stranger sojourning amongst strange people. But what was the promise? God was with him, and God blessed him. God protected him.
So it’s the same way with us today. Yes, we are now ‘citizens’ of Heaven by virtue of our salvation experience. But God didn’t take us to Heaven when we were saved; He left us here. And so we are dwelling amongst lost humanity around us but we are under His protective care. We’re His, we belong to Him and so all these examples of faith are for our learning. And this is the reason for Paul's rehearsing of these patriarchs of faith the strengthen them in their faith as the Romans build their strength to crush the Hebrews uprising of nationalism against them.
We’re in Hebrews chapter 11 and we’re about ready to go into verse 8 - and in fact we touched on it a little bit. This letter is written primarily, not exclusively, to Christian-Hebrew people who were having a hard time making the break with Judaism (with the Temple worship and the sacrifices and all its pom and circumstance), with the over whelming tide of nationalism and the prevailing winds of God's judgment of Daniel's prophecy. And stepping away from it into this Age of Grace and the New Covenant of Grace which is based on the power of an Endless Life through a death of all our self-will, our pride and ego, as well as to the power of the spirit of the world. By faith in Paul’s Gospel, plus nothing, theirs and our salvation. Though they face death daily he's telling them to NOT turn back to religion as they knew it but to stand strong in Christ, the rock, upon which they can stand if they hold fast to the end, even if it is their death, through which they'll receive the reward promised them, in Christ.
Hebrews 11:8
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went."
Well, we’ve already talked about Abraham so we’re not going to stretch this. God didn’t pick Abraham up out of Ur of the Chaldees and supernaturally transport him over Canaan and give him a bird’s-eye-view, like even Moses had from Mount Nebo. And God didn’t take Abram out over Canaan and say, "Now Abraham if you believe me this is what I’m going to give you." No. God just simply told this man Abraham down there in the Euphrates Valley, "Leave your city, and your family. And go to a land that I will show you." Now that takes trust an obedience without questioning or doubting. How? He knew God! He wondered through a land that was not his own and looked forward to a city and land not yet seen signifying that even Canaan (Palestine) was not the land of promise.
That takes faith! He had to break with his family. He had to break with his business. He had to simply turn his back on everything and leave his homeland. That’s what trust has to do. All right, and so "he goes into a place which he should(not) afterward receive for an inheritance and Abraham obeyed." He did what God asked him to do, and that’s faith. "...and he went out not knowing whither he went." Keep in mind that all these examples are rehearsed for the sole purpose of strengthening the Palestinian Hebrew Christians faith to endure the hardships that were on the horizon as a forward looking faith to the greater reward. To keep the faith in Christ's working within them as they were already receptive of His workings. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him,” but the ultimate pleasure of God is not in the faith action itself, but in the fact that faith allows God’s Grace action to manifest His character and work. In his benedictory remarks, Paul prays that the Palestinian Hebrew Christians will allow God “to equip them in every good thing to do His will, working in them that which is pleasing to His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (13:21).
Now when he finally gets there which is the land of Canaan years and years later, he’s still operating by faith.
Hebrews 11:9a
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,…"
Which of course, God promised to him back there in Genesis chapter 15 and on. And so he, "lived by faith in the land of promise as in a strange country." Now what’s the lesson? That he was looking forward to the heavenly land that is to be realized in Christ Jesus, as promised.
You know Paul says in Romans that all these things back in the Old Testament were written for what purpose? Our learning. Right! And so what’s the lesson? Well, this is where you and I are. You and I were called out of the Ur of the lost estate or Egypt as an example of the world. We were snatched out of the slave market of sin, sickness and death. But when God transformed us and made us a believer, a receiver and declared us righteous, He didn’t take us to Heaven - be nice if He would! But He didn’t; He left us here. And so in the picture, where are we? We’re among the strangers. We’re amongst a hateful world. The world has always hated Christ-like ones, His disciples.
Now the Constitution fortunately has protected us thus far and for most of Western civilization their government has protected Christians. But you go into Sudan today, are Christians safe? Na! They’re dying by the thousands. Go into Indonesia. Are Christians safe? In Figi, you better believe that they are. It don't start this way there for they were a people of head hunters and killers of men. But in so most areas of the world, they’re living amongst a hateful enemy. And the only reason we don’t feel it is because our government guarantees our safety; but take that away and I think you and I would be shocked at how fast they would turn against us.
But here the picture is that Abraham was now dwelling amongst strangers. Oh, God deeded him the land in Genesis 15 but who was still occupying it? The Canaanites. So now you have to picture in your own mind, here comes this man Abraham with his flocks and his herds and his servants – what does he have to ask as he traverses the land? Permission. He would ask permission. "Can I bring my flocks on to your land? Can I bring my flocks into your orchards?" He had to because he was a stranger sojourning amongst strange people. But what was the promise? God was with him, and God blessed him. God protected him.
So it’s the same way with us today. Yes, we are now ‘citizens’ of Heaven by virtue of our salvation experience. But God didn’t take us to Heaven when we were saved; He left us here. And so we are dwelling amongst lost humanity around us but we are under His protective care. We’re His, we belong to Him and so all these examples of faith are for our learning. And this is the reason for Paul's rehearsing of these patriarchs of faith the strengthen them in their faith as the Romans build their strength to crush the Hebrews uprising of nationalism against them.
We’re in Hebrews chapter 11 and we’re about ready to go into verse 8 - and in fact we touched on it a little bit. This letter is written primarily, not exclusively, to Christian-Hebrew people who were having a hard time making the break with Judaism (with the Temple worship and the sacrifices and all its pom and circumstance), with the over whelming tide of nationalism and the prevailing winds of God's judgment of Daniel's prophecy. And stepping away from it into this Age of Grace and the New Covenant of Grace which is based on the power of an Endless Life through a death of all our self-will, our pride and ego, as well as to the power of the spirit of the world. By faith in Paul’s Gospel, plus nothing, theirs and our salvation. Though they face death daily he's telling them to NOT turn back to religion as they knew it but to stand strong in Christ, the rock, upon which they can stand if they hold fast to the end, even if it is their death, through which they'll receive the reward promised them, in Christ.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)