Romans 8:14-15a
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons (or the divinely born ones) of God. 15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;..." What
did we tell you about the Law? It was a burden. It was severe. It was a
heavy Yoke that one could carry. And don't tell us that they didn't
live in a segment of fear. My goodness, bet you more than once they
slipped out on a Saturday afternoon and tried to pick up a few sticks
for fire, and they were scared to death that someone would see them and
they would be stoned to death. But you see we're not in that situation
nor are we in that institution. Paul says we're not under that spirit of
bondage to fear-
Romans 8:15b
"... but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
Remember
when that tutor had that adult son ready to step in and be co-equal
with the father? Did the son have to come in like a little puppy dog
afraid of old dad? No. He's prepared; he's ready to come right in and
work along side the father. Why? Because he's been well-tutored, he's
ready for it, he's well trained and fully equipped. Well that's where we
are. By virtue of the work of the Cross and the Holy Spirit in us, now
God can place us as a fully completely tutored son of God and we can
come along side with Him. Now that's our position. Someday if the Lord
tarries we'll be going into the Book of Ephesians, and that is a Book of
position. Where are we as believers? We're in that exalted position,
even though we're here on the earth and still under the curse, we're up
against all the things that the rest of the world is, and a lot of us
are kind of blind to this fact, but in faith we can see that we're all
ready in that exalted position in the heavenliest, and we're already
joint heirs with Christ and In Christ.
Romans 8:15b
"...but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
Can
we picture an 18 year-old son in the Middle East or Southeast Asia -
maybe his father has a jewelry store. Boy those jewelry stores over
there will just knock your eyes out. Can you imagine the exhilaration of
both the father and the son on the first morning that son comes in and
says, "Dad, I'm finally ready and I'm going to run the family business
with you." To see that father just as exhilarated and hear him say, "Son
I've been waiting for this day." Can you imagine that? That's what God
says every time a child of God is saved. God the Father says, "I've been
waiting for you. I've been waiting for this day." And He places us
right up there in a place of full responsibility after our season of
training under God listening, listening and growing in the knowledge of
Christ through the Holy Spirit. We know we've all begun as babes and we
feed on the milk of the Word, but positionally we're right up there with
God the Son. There has to come a time of our weening from the milk of
the word, when we're to be feed on the meat of our alter, the flesh and
blood of Christ. Which the priesthood of Aaron's priest's have no
fellowship or right to eat or have a share of.
Romans 8:16-17a
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17. And if children, (or divinely born ones) then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;..." What's Christ's is ours, and on the other hand what's ours is His. Do you see that?
Romans 8:17b
"if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
Now
there are many who throw this passage off by saying that we're
glorified already or the we're divinely and supernaturally blessed as
Israel was with all the material things of our hearts desire. BUT,
that's not what the word says at all, we're to suffer for our faith in
Christ, the Living Word and the Living God who imparts His Life into us
by what? FAITH! To accept those things of the world is to fall from
Grace and thereby miss God! And lose so great a salvation.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Part LXXX on The Study of Galatians
Isaiah 61:10
"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; (now this is a man under the Law remember) for he (God) hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, (do you see how that fits with Romans) as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." That's the outward view now that God sees in the believer. Adorned, covered with righteousness, but inside it's still old me for the most part, and it's still old you. But on the other hand we are New Creations in Christ because of all that has taken place when we first believe. Not when we go through a bunch of rituals, customs and religious ceremonies that will never save anybody. Or even our first estate into which God places us for our learning and teaching by the Holy Spirit's workings within us. We're to come to the place where we've so disgusted within our selves because of sin that we're willing to take what ever punishment the Law requires of us and we become willing to die in order to connect with God and His Love. If this does not take place or happen within us some time after we've received the Holy Spirit we say that we'd better do a check up from within and then from the neck up. As something is not right someplace within. In fact most rituals (even those of Israel's past) are in fact an abomination before God. Now come back to Galatians chapter 3 again. Now let's look at verse 29.
Galatians 3:29
"And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, (now that doesn't make us a Hebrew, be careful thinking that. A lot of people teach that when we become a Christian we become a Hebrew. No, no, but we become the offspring of promise to Abraham in the realm of the spirit. And so if we're Christ's then we are Abraham's seed, and if we are of the seed of Abraham in the realm of the spirit then we become) and heirs according to the promise." Now this is the desired purpose and out come of our first estate placement by God for this only happens after a death, the secret hidden with in the sacrifice of Isaac and God's covenant promise with him.
Now think about that. If you're Christ's you are Abraham's seed. Now again we've got to go back to Genesis chapter 12. We've got to see these things before they really began to make sense. In chapter 12 we will just look at the 3d verse and remember it's part of the Abrahamic Covenant and part of the covenant with Isaac.
Genesis 12:3
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee (Abraham) shall all families of the earth be blessed." Since all families of the earth are blessed through Abraham then God here is looking way beyond all the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is looking beyond the Law, He's looking at His coming Son and this Age of Grace. We're in His blessing of salvation which goes to the whole human race through Isaac as a figure of Christ in his being offered to God as a sacrifice. And it doesn't matter whether we are rich or poor, black or white, it makes no difference. As soon as we become a believer of this Gospel which Paul's letters reveal, then we are one in Christ, and we're in the Body, the Church as a Holy Assembly of God's promised possession to Christ Jesus. And then we become heirs of the promises made to Abraham and Isaac. Because you see God's promise went way beyond the Nation of Israel, and so that's where we come in then, as we've showed earlier. Now we'll look at Genesis chapter 17:
Genesis 17:19, 21
"And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him..... But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year."
Now we'll turn to chapter 21:
Genesis 21:12
"And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called."
Now chapter 22:
Genesis 22:9
"And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood."
Here within is the secret contained of Christ and His being offered as the promised son of Israel who is to follow.
As Abraham was saved by faith + nothing we are also. Did Abraham bring sacrifices for salvation? No. Was Abraham circumcised before he had salvation? No. Was Abraham under the Law? No. So what did Abraham do to merit salvation? He just simply trusted and believed God. So he becomes then the first to really be saved by faith + nothing! Immediately after that sacrifices are coming in again. So now then here we are 2000 years BC and Abraham saved by faith + nothing. And here we are over on this side of the cross in our Age of Grace, the 1960 + years also saved by faith + nothing. So what does that do? It just simply ties us to the man Abraham and that's where we're connected. Not through earthly progeny, not through the practice of some ritual or custom or the tradition of men but only in the realm of the spiritual do we become the children of Abraham. Is that clear?
We hope we can make this plain, that here is where the connection comes in as God made the promises to Abraham 2000 years BC. And yes out of him would come the Nation of Israel. Yes, through the Nation of Israel would come the Law, and yes, Israel would be the vehicle that crucified the Redeemer, who was promised them and made our salvation possible. But then Israel slips off the scene and the Gentiles come in and are dwelling on the root and the fatness of Abraham because all of those promises that were made to Abraham have become ours. So we have entered into the whole concept of being joint heirs according to the promises. The hidden meaning of the Last Supper, the cup, and all the figurative language up to an including the ascension of Christ. Now the subject of joint heirs should bring us back to Romans chapter 8.
"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; (now this is a man under the Law remember) for he (God) hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, (do you see how that fits with Romans) as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." That's the outward view now that God sees in the believer. Adorned, covered with righteousness, but inside it's still old me for the most part, and it's still old you. But on the other hand we are New Creations in Christ because of all that has taken place when we first believe. Not when we go through a bunch of rituals, customs and religious ceremonies that will never save anybody. Or even our first estate into which God places us for our learning and teaching by the Holy Spirit's workings within us. We're to come to the place where we've so disgusted within our selves because of sin that we're willing to take what ever punishment the Law requires of us and we become willing to die in order to connect with God and His Love. If this does not take place or happen within us some time after we've received the Holy Spirit we say that we'd better do a check up from within and then from the neck up. As something is not right someplace within. In fact most rituals (even those of Israel's past) are in fact an abomination before God. Now come back to Galatians chapter 3 again. Now let's look at verse 29.
Galatians 3:29
"And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, (now that doesn't make us a Hebrew, be careful thinking that. A lot of people teach that when we become a Christian we become a Hebrew. No, no, but we become the offspring of promise to Abraham in the realm of the spirit. And so if we're Christ's then we are Abraham's seed, and if we are of the seed of Abraham in the realm of the spirit then we become) and heirs according to the promise." Now this is the desired purpose and out come of our first estate placement by God for this only happens after a death, the secret hidden with in the sacrifice of Isaac and God's covenant promise with him.
Now think about that. If you're Christ's you are Abraham's seed. Now again we've got to go back to Genesis chapter 12. We've got to see these things before they really began to make sense. In chapter 12 we will just look at the 3d verse and remember it's part of the Abrahamic Covenant and part of the covenant with Isaac.
Genesis 12:3
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee (Abraham) shall all families of the earth be blessed." Since all families of the earth are blessed through Abraham then God here is looking way beyond all the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is looking beyond the Law, He's looking at His coming Son and this Age of Grace. We're in His blessing of salvation which goes to the whole human race through Isaac as a figure of Christ in his being offered to God as a sacrifice. And it doesn't matter whether we are rich or poor, black or white, it makes no difference. As soon as we become a believer of this Gospel which Paul's letters reveal, then we are one in Christ, and we're in the Body, the Church as a Holy Assembly of God's promised possession to Christ Jesus. And then we become heirs of the promises made to Abraham and Isaac. Because you see God's promise went way beyond the Nation of Israel, and so that's where we come in then, as we've showed earlier. Now we'll look at Genesis chapter 17:
Genesis 17:19, 21
"And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him..... But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year."
Now we'll turn to chapter 21:
Genesis 21:12
"And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called."
Now chapter 22:
Genesis 22:9
"And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood."
Here within is the secret contained of Christ and His being offered as the promised son of Israel who is to follow.
As Abraham was saved by faith + nothing we are also. Did Abraham bring sacrifices for salvation? No. Was Abraham circumcised before he had salvation? No. Was Abraham under the Law? No. So what did Abraham do to merit salvation? He just simply trusted and believed God. So he becomes then the first to really be saved by faith + nothing! Immediately after that sacrifices are coming in again. So now then here we are 2000 years BC and Abraham saved by faith + nothing. And here we are over on this side of the cross in our Age of Grace, the 1960 + years also saved by faith + nothing. So what does that do? It just simply ties us to the man Abraham and that's where we're connected. Not through earthly progeny, not through the practice of some ritual or custom or the tradition of men but only in the realm of the spiritual do we become the children of Abraham. Is that clear?
We hope we can make this plain, that here is where the connection comes in as God made the promises to Abraham 2000 years BC. And yes out of him would come the Nation of Israel. Yes, through the Nation of Israel would come the Law, and yes, Israel would be the vehicle that crucified the Redeemer, who was promised them and made our salvation possible. But then Israel slips off the scene and the Gentiles come in and are dwelling on the root and the fatness of Abraham because all of those promises that were made to Abraham have become ours. So we have entered into the whole concept of being joint heirs according to the promises. The hidden meaning of the Last Supper, the cup, and all the figurative language up to an including the ascension of Christ. Now the subject of joint heirs should bring us back to Romans chapter 8.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Part LXXIX on The Study of Galatians
Ephesians 4:4-5
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
I Corinthians 12:13
"For by one Spirit (the Holy Spirit, it's capitalized) are we all (believers of Paul's Gospel for salvation) baptized into one body, (the Body of Christ. Now here's another verse that is as dry as a bone. There is not a drop of water in this verse. It's the work of the Holy Spirit and His working in the area of the invisible placing use now in that new resurrected personage into that relationship within Christ.) whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and we have been all made to drink into one Spirit (the Living and Eternal Life giving Spirit of Christ by virtue of New Covenant for He is the LORD of the Covenant) ."
There is no color or ethnic nor gender line in the Body of Christ, we as receivers, believers are all baptized into the Body of Christ, and we are all one in Christ. We have meet people from various parts of the country. But you know what? In just a matter of minuets we all came together as though we had known each other all our lives. Why? We were all believers. We were all members of the Body of Christ, and we're not strangers for every long when you're believers, and it's so beautiful. Now that just shows the fact that when we become members of the Body of Christ there is that unity that nothing can take apart.
Now this is what comes alone from the writings of the Apostle Paul. This isn't taught in the Four Gospels, this isn't taught in the Old Testament, but Paul is constantly at it. That when we have faith in the Gospel then we become a member of the Body of Christ. Now back to Galatians chapter 3. Now verse 27 is too good a verse to just casually go over. So if you have been baptized by that Holy Spirit's work into the Body of Christ, then something else has happened. God has moved us from our first estate into the second blessing. How by Way of death. And then What? You have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:27
"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Now we know that maybe some of these things take more faith than the average believer has. In fact let's come back to Romans again for a moment. You see Romans is the first Book of doctrine that Paul writes in our New Testament, and in his writings is where we must spend most of our time. So turn with us to Romans chapter 3. We looked at verses 10 and 20 so now we'll look at 21 and 22. Remember up in verse 20 it says-
Romans 3:20-21
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.. (now read on in verse 21 and you will see the flip side) "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, (or brought into the spot light) being witnessed by the law and the prophets:" Remember what we told you that the Bible is a progressive revelation, and here is a good indication of that. Here we are today in Grace, there is no Law, nothing that is part of our salvation comes from the Law, but what does Grace rest on? The Law and the prophets, because they came before. And they all were an invisible image of Christ in bites and pieces as a broken clay pot. But when Jesus came they were each brought back together in a spiritual tapestry in His flesh as the son of man. See it's a progressive thing. Here comes the Law of Moses, and then here comes the prophets with all of their teachings concerning the coming of the King and the kingdom and of course their warnings and condemnation of Israel's grossness in sin. Then we've seen all that just fall through the cracks as we come up through the Old Testament, the Four Gospels and the Book of Acts and the first 11 chapters, and so temporarily during these past 1960 + years God has turned to the Gentiles and calls out the invisible Body of Christ the Church. And of course we're built upon everything that's gone before.
We've explained, can we crucify ourselves? It's impossible. There is no way a person can crucify themselves. We might be able to have guts enough to put the first nail in your hand, but how are you going to put in the second one or the third? Hey we have no way of doing it, and so it becomes utterly impossible. So we have to realize it's the same way in salvation. We can't do anything, God has to do it all, because this is being done in the area of the invisible – in our regenerated or rebirthed soul and spirit. Now let's come back again to the Book of Galatians. So we -
Galatians 3:27b
"...have put on Christ." And according to Romans we become His righteousness. We are clothed with His righteousness and that brings to mind another verse we need to look at the Book of Isaiah chapter 61.
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
I Corinthians 12:13
"For by one Spirit (the Holy Spirit, it's capitalized) are we all (believers of Paul's Gospel for salvation) baptized into one body, (the Body of Christ. Now here's another verse that is as dry as a bone. There is not a drop of water in this verse. It's the work of the Holy Spirit and His working in the area of the invisible placing use now in that new resurrected personage into that relationship within Christ.) whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and we have been all made to drink into one Spirit (the Living and Eternal Life giving Spirit of Christ by virtue of New Covenant for He is the LORD of the Covenant) ."
There is no color or ethnic nor gender line in the Body of Christ, we as receivers, believers are all baptized into the Body of Christ, and we are all one in Christ. We have meet people from various parts of the country. But you know what? In just a matter of minuets we all came together as though we had known each other all our lives. Why? We were all believers. We were all members of the Body of Christ, and we're not strangers for every long when you're believers, and it's so beautiful. Now that just shows the fact that when we become members of the Body of Christ there is that unity that nothing can take apart.
Now this is what comes alone from the writings of the Apostle Paul. This isn't taught in the Four Gospels, this isn't taught in the Old Testament, but Paul is constantly at it. That when we have faith in the Gospel then we become a member of the Body of Christ. Now back to Galatians chapter 3. Now verse 27 is too good a verse to just casually go over. So if you have been baptized by that Holy Spirit's work into the Body of Christ, then something else has happened. God has moved us from our first estate into the second blessing. How by Way of death. And then What? You have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:27
"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Now we know that maybe some of these things take more faith than the average believer has. In fact let's come back to Romans again for a moment. You see Romans is the first Book of doctrine that Paul writes in our New Testament, and in his writings is where we must spend most of our time. So turn with us to Romans chapter 3. We looked at verses 10 and 20 so now we'll look at 21 and 22. Remember up in verse 20 it says-
Romans 3:20-21
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.. (now read on in verse 21 and you will see the flip side) "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, (or brought into the spot light) being witnessed by the law and the prophets:" Remember what we told you that the Bible is a progressive revelation, and here is a good indication of that. Here we are today in Grace, there is no Law, nothing that is part of our salvation comes from the Law, but what does Grace rest on? The Law and the prophets, because they came before. And they all were an invisible image of Christ in bites and pieces as a broken clay pot. But when Jesus came they were each brought back together in a spiritual tapestry in His flesh as the son of man. See it's a progressive thing. Here comes the Law of Moses, and then here comes the prophets with all of their teachings concerning the coming of the King and the kingdom and of course their warnings and condemnation of Israel's grossness in sin. Then we've seen all that just fall through the cracks as we come up through the Old Testament, the Four Gospels and the Book of Acts and the first 11 chapters, and so temporarily during these past 1960 + years God has turned to the Gentiles and calls out the invisible Body of Christ the Church. And of course we're built upon everything that's gone before.
We've explained, can we crucify ourselves? It's impossible. There is no way a person can crucify themselves. We might be able to have guts enough to put the first nail in your hand, but how are you going to put in the second one or the third? Hey we have no way of doing it, and so it becomes utterly impossible. So we have to realize it's the same way in salvation. We can't do anything, God has to do it all, because this is being done in the area of the invisible – in our regenerated or rebirthed soul and spirit. Now let's come back again to the Book of Galatians. So we -
Galatians 3:27b
"...have put on Christ." And according to Romans we become His righteousness. We are clothed with His righteousness and that brings to mind another verse we need to look at the Book of Isaiah chapter 61.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Part LXXVIII on The Study of Galatians
Galatians 3:27
"For as many of you as have been baptized into (your denomination? NO) Christ have put on Christ."
Well that's the way most people read it, isn't it? Sure. You ask the average individual, how did you become a member of your Church? and whats the answer? Well I was baptized into it! My name is on the registry of the church membership row. But you see that's not what the Scriptures says. Here it says, "that you have been baptized into Christ." Now there's not a drop of water in this verse. It's as dry as a bone, and to follow up with another verse come back to Romans chapter 6, and you have the same thing. We'll never forget the first time we heard a guest preacher in one of our previous churches where we were "members", and this preacher preached from Romans 6 and when he said there wasn't a drop of water in this 3rd verse we thought he was way out in left field. And at that time we were probably one of the strongest, but oh we can see now that he was 100 % right because there is no water in Romans chapter 6. Here it's basically the same thing as what Paul is saying in Galatians chapter 3.
Romans 6:3
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into (not into a denomination or church, but rather into) Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" If you've been placed in Christ then before you can get there you had to be identified with His death. Before a newness of life can come there has to be a death of the old, before we can truly be born from above there has to be a surrender to death of the old. This is the whole meaning and purpose of the last supper coupled with the death of Jesus shortly thereafter on the tree or cross. Remember it was not weeks or days after the meal but only a few hours therefore they go together as one unite. And how have we always put it? When Christ died, God saw every one of us on the Cross in the Person of Christ, because He died in our place, and this is what God saw. He saw us crucified and that's what He means in Galatians 2 when Paul says -
Galatians 2:20
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;..." Now just as surely as God saw us on the Cross in the person of Christ, He also saw us in the tomb. So here we are in the tomb, we're buried with Him. Not by water but by virtue of God determining that now since He's paid the sin debt for all that will receive and believe, and appropriate it then yes God said, "You're dead, you're crucified, I saw you in Christ, I saw you buried with Him in His death, in His tomb, and so also we've been resurrected with Him to a Newness of Life. We are totally different people as a result of this power of His resurrection, and so it's a God thing. God in His Omnipotence, in His power, in His Omniscience, in His ability to work in the area of the invisible, He has placed us in all of these places.
In the area of the invisible He has seen everyone of us crucified with Christ. In the area of the invisible He saw everyone of us in the tomb with Christ, and in the area of the invisible He has resurrected everyone of us to a New Life and Endless Life. And as He did in our first estate He has also placed us within the promised New Covenant which is also Christ. For in this New Covenant God has promised to be held responsible for doing the work within us. How often haven't we made this illustration? If you were to go down to the morgue and accompany a pathologist in an autopsy, would you ever see the soul of a person? Would you ever see their spirit? Of course not, it's invisible. Does that mean that it's not for real? You better believe it's for real or you wouldn't be here. But the soul and spirit are invisible, and that's where God works, in the area of the invisible. He works in the area of our soul and spirit, and human hands can't touch that. You can water baptize this old body a hundred times and it's not going to change the soul and spirit. Remember this is only an outer tabernacle, but only God can work in the area of the soul and spirit His inner temple. We wish people could understand that. Looking at the verse again.
Romans 6:3
"Know ye not, that so many of us is were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized (or identified) into his death?" And then to verse 8:
Romans 6:8
"Now if we be dead with Christ, (in other words if we've been crucified with Him, if we've been buried with Him then) we believe that we shall also live with him:" How are we going to live with Him? By His resurrection power. Do you see that? We've been raised in resurrection power. We're a new person, we're a whole new being, and now we have been placed into Christ. How? By an action of God's Will and of His divine purpose. Now on your way back to Galatians stop at I Corinthians chapter 12. These are verses that we use over and over because they are so foundational and so simplistic. We don't have to have a seminary degree to understand some of these verses. They're so simple but most people don't understand them. Why? Because they've been lead to believe a lie, someone said they could not and therefore they repeat that over and over until they believe it. Also keep in mind that Paul tells us in Ephesians now in this Age of Grace that there is only one baptism and then I Corinthians tells us what baptism that is.
Ephesians 4:4-5
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
"For as many of you as have been baptized into (your denomination? NO) Christ have put on Christ."
Well that's the way most people read it, isn't it? Sure. You ask the average individual, how did you become a member of your Church? and whats the answer? Well I was baptized into it! My name is on the registry of the church membership row. But you see that's not what the Scriptures says. Here it says, "that you have been baptized into Christ." Now there's not a drop of water in this verse. It's as dry as a bone, and to follow up with another verse come back to Romans chapter 6, and you have the same thing. We'll never forget the first time we heard a guest preacher in one of our previous churches where we were "members", and this preacher preached from Romans 6 and when he said there wasn't a drop of water in this 3rd verse we thought he was way out in left field. And at that time we were probably one of the strongest, but oh we can see now that he was 100 % right because there is no water in Romans chapter 6. Here it's basically the same thing as what Paul is saying in Galatians chapter 3.
Romans 6:3
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into (not into a denomination or church, but rather into) Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" If you've been placed in Christ then before you can get there you had to be identified with His death. Before a newness of life can come there has to be a death of the old, before we can truly be born from above there has to be a surrender to death of the old. This is the whole meaning and purpose of the last supper coupled with the death of Jesus shortly thereafter on the tree or cross. Remember it was not weeks or days after the meal but only a few hours therefore they go together as one unite. And how have we always put it? When Christ died, God saw every one of us on the Cross in the Person of Christ, because He died in our place, and this is what God saw. He saw us crucified and that's what He means in Galatians 2 when Paul says -
Galatians 2:20
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;..." Now just as surely as God saw us on the Cross in the person of Christ, He also saw us in the tomb. So here we are in the tomb, we're buried with Him. Not by water but by virtue of God determining that now since He's paid the sin debt for all that will receive and believe, and appropriate it then yes God said, "You're dead, you're crucified, I saw you in Christ, I saw you buried with Him in His death, in His tomb, and so also we've been resurrected with Him to a Newness of Life. We are totally different people as a result of this power of His resurrection, and so it's a God thing. God in His Omnipotence, in His power, in His Omniscience, in His ability to work in the area of the invisible, He has placed us in all of these places.
In the area of the invisible He has seen everyone of us crucified with Christ. In the area of the invisible He saw everyone of us in the tomb with Christ, and in the area of the invisible He has resurrected everyone of us to a New Life and Endless Life. And as He did in our first estate He has also placed us within the promised New Covenant which is also Christ. For in this New Covenant God has promised to be held responsible for doing the work within us. How often haven't we made this illustration? If you were to go down to the morgue and accompany a pathologist in an autopsy, would you ever see the soul of a person? Would you ever see their spirit? Of course not, it's invisible. Does that mean that it's not for real? You better believe it's for real or you wouldn't be here. But the soul and spirit are invisible, and that's where God works, in the area of the invisible. He works in the area of our soul and spirit, and human hands can't touch that. You can water baptize this old body a hundred times and it's not going to change the soul and spirit. Remember this is only an outer tabernacle, but only God can work in the area of the soul and spirit His inner temple. We wish people could understand that. Looking at the verse again.
Romans 6:3
"Know ye not, that so many of us is were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized (or identified) into his death?" And then to verse 8:
Romans 6:8
"Now if we be dead with Christ, (in other words if we've been crucified with Him, if we've been buried with Him then) we believe that we shall also live with him:" How are we going to live with Him? By His resurrection power. Do you see that? We've been raised in resurrection power. We're a new person, we're a whole new being, and now we have been placed into Christ. How? By an action of God's Will and of His divine purpose. Now on your way back to Galatians stop at I Corinthians chapter 12. These are verses that we use over and over because they are so foundational and so simplistic. We don't have to have a seminary degree to understand some of these verses. They're so simple but most people don't understand them. Why? Because they've been lead to believe a lie, someone said they could not and therefore they repeat that over and over until they believe it. Also keep in mind that Paul tells us in Ephesians now in this Age of Grace that there is only one baptism and then I Corinthians tells us what baptism that is.
Ephesians 4:4-5
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Part LXXVII on The Study of Galatians
Galatians 3:25
"But after that faith (way) is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." Again we're going to ask you to mentally put the word "way" after faith. Being saved by faith + nothing in what God has said. Once we come to that place in God's economy in this progressive revelation. Now then the Hebrews are no longer under a schoolmaster, in the corral or under a tutor, teachers guidance, as the example of the statutes and ordinances were. Allow us to explain schoolmaster here. The schoolmaster that Paul refers to is not in the Jewish economy, but rather the Greek and the Roman. And what the Greeks and Romans would do is hire a slave or a trustworthy servant, and that servant/slave was under the demands of the father to raise that child and tutor that child so that at some designated point out in the future, somewhere probably between the ages of 16 - 30 years of age, the tutor would be able to say, "Master this young man is now ready to come in and work right alone side of you in your business. He's got everything that he needs to know. He's been well-tutored, and is prepared." This was all in place until Christ came on the scene for He was its completion or the fulfillment of the Law. He operated in full compliance of and to the requirements of the Law. Remember He told John the Baptist that they were to fulfill all righteousness, this they did and He continues on to do.
Now when that father has agreed that indeed the son is ready then an adoption was instituted. It was not like we think of an adoption of taking a child from some other union, and legally bring him into another. That's not what the Scripture word adoption means. It meant to be placed as a son in full operation of the fathers business, on an equal basis with him in responsibility, and function and every other way. Now that's the term schoolmaster that Paul is using here and what it means. This servant who had been hired to bring this child to the place where he could step right in and work with the father. The early church used baptism as a means of adoption, to make that one a child, now get this; a god-children. All right do you get the picture? That's what the Law was intended to do for Israel.
It was to prepare them and bring them to the place that when the Messiah would come they were ready. And in faith they could have said, "Yes," and a few of them did, but for the most part the nation rejected their Messiah, the god-child. They had that opportunity to believe everything that Christ was, had they been ready for it, but they were not. And so now it comes into our Gentile economy for us and it's still a valid concept, that the law was given to prepare everything for the coming of the Messiah, that He could fulfill the work of Cross, as a god-child. Yes, He had to die, and He had to be buried, He had to be raised from the dead for our justification. By way of God adopting us as His God-child. But now we see the Law has been satisfied, it has been completely paid in full through the work of the Cross, and we now enter in by faith + nothing. The Law has done it's job, it's done, it's been crucified, and set off the scene. Isn't that beautiful? YES. And all in the per-determinate counsel of God. Those who come into this faith relationship have in fact become God-children. This by way of the cross of Christ and His last supper.
Galatians 3:26
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." So we're children of God not by keeping the Law, or the observing of sabbath days or feast days or observing any particular holidays but by faith in Christ Jesus. Oh listen, how many millions of so called Christians are flying in the face of this verse and saying, "Yeah but I've got to do this or that. I think, we also need to do this." But you see this verse like all Paul's verses include none of that. We become the children of God by only one thing and one thing only, and that is by "Faith in the finished work of Christ." And that of course is what Paul is implying here. Paul never speaks that just believing that He was the Messiah. That was back in Peter's gospel and his domain, that was before these inspirations of revelations (divine illumination) were given to Paul. When Paul speaks by faith in Christ he's talking about faith in that finished work of redemption. "The fact that Christ died for us, was buried and rose from the grave for us, and our having walked through it and that for salvation." Then by way of divine illumination we're shown that God credits us as having been in Christ, during the whole operation of the sufferings of Christ.
That reminds us of another thing many believe. And that is that we're against the forces of Satan, and it's just about to drive us and them up the wall. If we have our mind in the wrong place, submitted to God. We then have to put our mind on the power of the resurrection. And all of this demonic stuff will flee from us. If we can just get our mind on the power of His resurrection and forget about the demons. Beloved do you know that Paul never once as far as we can tell even uses that word. If he does we want you to show us. He never once used the word demons as being active in the life of a believer, but rather all he can talk about is that wonderful power of Christ's resurrection.
Galatians 3:26
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." As we mentioned when Paul speaks of faith in Christ he's speaking of that whole finished work of our redemption, which is faith in His death, His shed blood, His burial, and His resurrection into His ascension. Paul stresses constantly the power of His resurrection.
"But after that faith (way) is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." Again we're going to ask you to mentally put the word "way" after faith. Being saved by faith + nothing in what God has said. Once we come to that place in God's economy in this progressive revelation. Now then the Hebrews are no longer under a schoolmaster, in the corral or under a tutor, teachers guidance, as the example of the statutes and ordinances were. Allow us to explain schoolmaster here. The schoolmaster that Paul refers to is not in the Jewish economy, but rather the Greek and the Roman. And what the Greeks and Romans would do is hire a slave or a trustworthy servant, and that servant/slave was under the demands of the father to raise that child and tutor that child so that at some designated point out in the future, somewhere probably between the ages of 16 - 30 years of age, the tutor would be able to say, "Master this young man is now ready to come in and work right alone side of you in your business. He's got everything that he needs to know. He's been well-tutored, and is prepared." This was all in place until Christ came on the scene for He was its completion or the fulfillment of the Law. He operated in full compliance of and to the requirements of the Law. Remember He told John the Baptist that they were to fulfill all righteousness, this they did and He continues on to do.
Now when that father has agreed that indeed the son is ready then an adoption was instituted. It was not like we think of an adoption of taking a child from some other union, and legally bring him into another. That's not what the Scripture word adoption means. It meant to be placed as a son in full operation of the fathers business, on an equal basis with him in responsibility, and function and every other way. Now that's the term schoolmaster that Paul is using here and what it means. This servant who had been hired to bring this child to the place where he could step right in and work with the father. The early church used baptism as a means of adoption, to make that one a child, now get this; a god-children. All right do you get the picture? That's what the Law was intended to do for Israel.
It was to prepare them and bring them to the place that when the Messiah would come they were ready. And in faith they could have said, "Yes," and a few of them did, but for the most part the nation rejected their Messiah, the god-child. They had that opportunity to believe everything that Christ was, had they been ready for it, but they were not. And so now it comes into our Gentile economy for us and it's still a valid concept, that the law was given to prepare everything for the coming of the Messiah, that He could fulfill the work of Cross, as a god-child. Yes, He had to die, and He had to be buried, He had to be raised from the dead for our justification. By way of God adopting us as His God-child. But now we see the Law has been satisfied, it has been completely paid in full through the work of the Cross, and we now enter in by faith + nothing. The Law has done it's job, it's done, it's been crucified, and set off the scene. Isn't that beautiful? YES. And all in the per-determinate counsel of God. Those who come into this faith relationship have in fact become God-children. This by way of the cross of Christ and His last supper.
Galatians 3:26
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." So we're children of God not by keeping the Law, or the observing of sabbath days or feast days or observing any particular holidays but by faith in Christ Jesus. Oh listen, how many millions of so called Christians are flying in the face of this verse and saying, "Yeah but I've got to do this or that. I think, we also need to do this." But you see this verse like all Paul's verses include none of that. We become the children of God by only one thing and one thing only, and that is by "Faith in the finished work of Christ." And that of course is what Paul is implying here. Paul never speaks that just believing that He was the Messiah. That was back in Peter's gospel and his domain, that was before these inspirations of revelations (divine illumination) were given to Paul. When Paul speaks by faith in Christ he's talking about faith in that finished work of redemption. "The fact that Christ died for us, was buried and rose from the grave for us, and our having walked through it and that for salvation." Then by way of divine illumination we're shown that God credits us as having been in Christ, during the whole operation of the sufferings of Christ.
That reminds us of another thing many believe. And that is that we're against the forces of Satan, and it's just about to drive us and them up the wall. If we have our mind in the wrong place, submitted to God. We then have to put our mind on the power of the resurrection. And all of this demonic stuff will flee from us. If we can just get our mind on the power of His resurrection and forget about the demons. Beloved do you know that Paul never once as far as we can tell even uses that word. If he does we want you to show us. He never once used the word demons as being active in the life of a believer, but rather all he can talk about is that wonderful power of Christ's resurrection.
Galatians 3:26
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." As we mentioned when Paul speaks of faith in Christ he's speaking of that whole finished work of our redemption, which is faith in His death, His shed blood, His burial, and His resurrection into His ascension. Paul stresses constantly the power of His resurrection.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Part LXXVI on The Study of Galatians
Romans 15:4a
"For whatsoever things were written aforetime (the Old Testament) were written for our (salvation?, No. Our doctrine? No. For our what?) learning,..." We're simplistic, and we know we are. But we are trying to explain to someone who said, "Now look, would you expect one of your kids to suddenly jump in a university calculus class, when they'd never had arithmetic in school?" Why that's ridiculous isn't it. Who would ever expect somebody to do calculus if they had never even learned the combination back in grade school? Well this is exactly what we do with people. We take them right into the further revelations of Scripture without any concept of what went before. And then we wonder why they have no root, why their faith does not hold or even come about, it's because they don't understand anything. Therefore we and they remain in Ignorance, and we're all guilty of it. We expect people to all of a sudden latch on to these things without any background. But look what Paul says in this verse - All these things in the Old Testament and we can also include the Four Gospels up through the first 11 chapters of Acts now as far as we're concerned, because they're all hooked to the Old Testament economy.
Romans 15:4a
"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we (as believers now) through patience..." Always remember that the learning process is a slow process. We have to have time and repetition, and then we move on and get a little deeper, and then with repetition some more time is required. Well that's the way we've got to come through the Scriptures, and all of these things have been building, and building so that we, through comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Because the Holy Spirit knows just how much we're able to digest or take in. Now back to Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians 3:24a
"Wherefore (because of how God is dealing on a progressive revelation.. Wherefore) the law..." Now we have to be careful when we read your Bible. Sometimes the Law speaks of that whole system of Judaism. The ceremonial law, the civil law, the dietary laws and the moral law or code of conduct. Sometime that's all lopped into one word. But here we think the Apostle Paul is making reference only to the moral Law, the Ten Commandments.
Galatians 3:24a
"Wherefore the law (the Ten Commandments) was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ,..."
Now what does that mean? Well for 1500 years the Hebrews were under the Law, and it was a system (the corral or tutor of regulations and ordinances), by which God was training them and teaching them, and hopefully bringing them to the place where they would be mature and understanding believing Hebrews. That's what God was hoping for. Now we know it didn't happen but that was what He was striving for. So the sole purpose of the Law was to prepare the Nation of Israel for a great opportunity. To be vessels, to be instruments that He could use to bring in the masses of the Gentile world into His fellowship. So even for themselves as a nation -
Galatians 3:24b
"...the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified (now not by Law keeping but) by faith." Now we want to remember that all the way from Exodus chapter 20, Israel was under the system of the Law, and of course it was still the operation of faith that brought an individual Hebrew into a right relationship with God, but it was Law (works of the flesh) and faith. There was no such thing as faith + nothing, as we showed you, until the Law was totally, totally satisfied at the Cross in the person of Jesus Christ. And when Christ died He satisfied the demands of the Law in the Hebrews and our place. So Israel for 1500 years was under this Law to bring them to the place where they could have believed who Jesus was. Because all through the Old Testament the prophecies were looking forward to the coming of their Redeemer, King, and Messiah. the very birthing of Christ which Israel as a nation was pregnant with but they did not know it. They should have known who He was. They could have known who He was. The Old Testament was full of it, but why didn't they? They were steeped in, what? UNBELIEF! And paganism which ran rampant throughout the land with idols and shrines of all kinds on most all high places.
Why didn't Israel go in and take the promised land at Kadesh Barnea? God told them that He'd "drive the Canaanites out, everything is ready for you. You can go in and take their vineyards, their fields, their harvest, their everything, it's all waiting for you. I'll use hornets to drive them out " God had a system that He was literally going to remove the Canaanite population but leave everything else in tact. All they had to do was just walk in and take over with God's blessing. Why didn't they do it? Unbelief. Their unbelief was just simply awful.. God said, "There it is, take it!" And the first step of unbelief was, "well at least let us send in spies." So God condescended, but that wasn't His first intent. That was never His first instruction to send spies in first. God said, "Go in and take it!" But in their unbelief they wanted to send in the 12 spies one from each tribe, and if the spies would have come back and said, Yeah we can take it, and had went on in, God would have let them go on in. That's what He had intended, it was a valid offer to the Nation of Israel. But why didn't they? Unbelief! The horror of unbelief. God also told them to have nothing to do with the people and in many cases told the Hebrews to destroy them, their livestock and all the high places and idols but again they did not do as told.
Listen every individual that will one day end up in the Lake of Fire is going to be there for one reason, and that is "UNBELIEF!" The determination of their punishment will be according to the works they have done in this life, according to their individual faith it will be unto them, of course. But the cause of them being there in the first place is one word, Unbelief. As we've mentioned, why is our own beloved nation almost like a flood turning their back upon this Word? Unbelief. The nation refuses to take this as the Word of God, and we're suffering for it. Now coming back to our text in Galatians chapter 3. But nevertheless the Law was given that it might bring Israel to the place where they could recognize their Messiah and believe in Him, and trust Him, and they didn't because of unbelief. All of what is known as Judaism was nothing short of being a shadow or type of Christ, everything they practiced was Christ in a parable or imagery. Until Christ was formed within them or in their midst.
Paul makes a big deal of it, especially in Hebrews chapter 3. He says over and over, "why didn't they get into the promised land? Why was God so provoked with that generation? And we have to point back to Mount Sinai and they had the golden calf, and their gross immorality that they were involved in, but that isn't what God held against them. But rather God held their unbelief against them. We can go all the way back through Scripture and see these unbelief’s. Why was Esau such a grief of mind to his parents? His unbelief. Because in his unbelief what did he do? He went and married a Canaanite women. Ishmael is another example. What was one of the difference between Saul and David? Why didn't Saul become the great king that David did? Man he was a lot bigger man, he should have been able to kill a hundred men to David's one, but his problem was also unbelief. Saul even went so far as to go to the witch of Endor to get some information. Unbelief! And we can see this all the way up throughout Scripture, how that mankind refused to believe the Word of God. Now let's move on with verse 25.
"For whatsoever things were written aforetime (the Old Testament) were written for our (salvation?, No. Our doctrine? No. For our what?) learning,..." We're simplistic, and we know we are. But we are trying to explain to someone who said, "Now look, would you expect one of your kids to suddenly jump in a university calculus class, when they'd never had arithmetic in school?" Why that's ridiculous isn't it. Who would ever expect somebody to do calculus if they had never even learned the combination back in grade school? Well this is exactly what we do with people. We take them right into the further revelations of Scripture without any concept of what went before. And then we wonder why they have no root, why their faith does not hold or even come about, it's because they don't understand anything. Therefore we and they remain in Ignorance, and we're all guilty of it. We expect people to all of a sudden latch on to these things without any background. But look what Paul says in this verse - All these things in the Old Testament and we can also include the Four Gospels up through the first 11 chapters of Acts now as far as we're concerned, because they're all hooked to the Old Testament economy.
Romans 15:4a
"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we (as believers now) through patience..." Always remember that the learning process is a slow process. We have to have time and repetition, and then we move on and get a little deeper, and then with repetition some more time is required. Well that's the way we've got to come through the Scriptures, and all of these things have been building, and building so that we, through comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Because the Holy Spirit knows just how much we're able to digest or take in. Now back to Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians 3:24a
"Wherefore (because of how God is dealing on a progressive revelation.. Wherefore) the law..." Now we have to be careful when we read your Bible. Sometimes the Law speaks of that whole system of Judaism. The ceremonial law, the civil law, the dietary laws and the moral law or code of conduct. Sometime that's all lopped into one word. But here we think the Apostle Paul is making reference only to the moral Law, the Ten Commandments.
Galatians 3:24a
"Wherefore the law (the Ten Commandments) was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ,..."
Now what does that mean? Well for 1500 years the Hebrews were under the Law, and it was a system (the corral or tutor of regulations and ordinances), by which God was training them and teaching them, and hopefully bringing them to the place where they would be mature and understanding believing Hebrews. That's what God was hoping for. Now we know it didn't happen but that was what He was striving for. So the sole purpose of the Law was to prepare the Nation of Israel for a great opportunity. To be vessels, to be instruments that He could use to bring in the masses of the Gentile world into His fellowship. So even for themselves as a nation -
Galatians 3:24b
"...the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified (now not by Law keeping but) by faith." Now we want to remember that all the way from Exodus chapter 20, Israel was under the system of the Law, and of course it was still the operation of faith that brought an individual Hebrew into a right relationship with God, but it was Law (works of the flesh) and faith. There was no such thing as faith + nothing, as we showed you, until the Law was totally, totally satisfied at the Cross in the person of Jesus Christ. And when Christ died He satisfied the demands of the Law in the Hebrews and our place. So Israel for 1500 years was under this Law to bring them to the place where they could have believed who Jesus was. Because all through the Old Testament the prophecies were looking forward to the coming of their Redeemer, King, and Messiah. the very birthing of Christ which Israel as a nation was pregnant with but they did not know it. They should have known who He was. They could have known who He was. The Old Testament was full of it, but why didn't they? They were steeped in, what? UNBELIEF! And paganism which ran rampant throughout the land with idols and shrines of all kinds on most all high places.
Why didn't Israel go in and take the promised land at Kadesh Barnea? God told them that He'd "drive the Canaanites out, everything is ready for you. You can go in and take their vineyards, their fields, their harvest, their everything, it's all waiting for you. I'll use hornets to drive them out " God had a system that He was literally going to remove the Canaanite population but leave everything else in tact. All they had to do was just walk in and take over with God's blessing. Why didn't they do it? Unbelief. Their unbelief was just simply awful.. God said, "There it is, take it!" And the first step of unbelief was, "well at least let us send in spies." So God condescended, but that wasn't His first intent. That was never His first instruction to send spies in first. God said, "Go in and take it!" But in their unbelief they wanted to send in the 12 spies one from each tribe, and if the spies would have come back and said, Yeah we can take it, and had went on in, God would have let them go on in. That's what He had intended, it was a valid offer to the Nation of Israel. But why didn't they? Unbelief! The horror of unbelief. God also told them to have nothing to do with the people and in many cases told the Hebrews to destroy them, their livestock and all the high places and idols but again they did not do as told.
Listen every individual that will one day end up in the Lake of Fire is going to be there for one reason, and that is "UNBELIEF!" The determination of their punishment will be according to the works they have done in this life, according to their individual faith it will be unto them, of course. But the cause of them being there in the first place is one word, Unbelief. As we've mentioned, why is our own beloved nation almost like a flood turning their back upon this Word? Unbelief. The nation refuses to take this as the Word of God, and we're suffering for it. Now coming back to our text in Galatians chapter 3. But nevertheless the Law was given that it might bring Israel to the place where they could recognize their Messiah and believe in Him, and trust Him, and they didn't because of unbelief. All of what is known as Judaism was nothing short of being a shadow or type of Christ, everything they practiced was Christ in a parable or imagery. Until Christ was formed within them or in their midst.
Paul makes a big deal of it, especially in Hebrews chapter 3. He says over and over, "why didn't they get into the promised land? Why was God so provoked with that generation? And we have to point back to Mount Sinai and they had the golden calf, and their gross immorality that they were involved in, but that isn't what God held against them. But rather God held their unbelief against them. We can go all the way back through Scripture and see these unbelief’s. Why was Esau such a grief of mind to his parents? His unbelief. Because in his unbelief what did he do? He went and married a Canaanite women. Ishmael is another example. What was one of the difference between Saul and David? Why didn't Saul become the great king that David did? Man he was a lot bigger man, he should have been able to kill a hundred men to David's one, but his problem was also unbelief. Saul even went so far as to go to the witch of Endor to get some information. Unbelief! And we can see this all the way up throughout Scripture, how that mankind refused to believe the Word of God. Now let's move on with verse 25.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Part LXXV on The Study of Galatians
Galatians 3:23a
"But before faith came, we were kept under the law,..." Here we've got to explain something. You've heard us say it and you've heard others teach that all the way back to Adam the criteria for salvation was trust. "Taking God at His word." Faith began just as soon as God dealt with Adam and Eve after they had sinned. Adam had to take God at His word. So what does this verse mean?
Galatians 3:23a
"But before faith came..." Well without doing any violence to Scripture, and we hope it can enhances it, after the word faith we like to put "way." we think that will help. And we could add.... before the faith way came...
Galatians 3:23a
"....before the faith way came we were kept under the law..."
What do we mean by that? All we're saying is that we're not under Law, but rather under Grace, and Grace says, "Keep the Law?" No! Grace says, "By Faith, and Faith alone + nothing!" Remember we were only under the penalty of sin and death or the law of sin and death because we were separated from the commonwealth of God. So we like to think that clarifies it, at least hopefully. Before the faith way, before men and women could be saved by faith + nothing, without the Law, now again that actually means the regulations and ordinances which were added only to be a corral or tutor for the nation of Israel, only. As a means to keep them in check and separated from the influence of the spirit of the world. But it did not as they like Adam chose to partake of that which God told them NOT TO DO! The priest's polluted what God had given them. We know that it didn't work, as they became totally corrupted and profane before God. The reason Jesus came was to bring them back into a right relationship. But before that came in - and here Paul goes back and speaks as a Hebrew-
Galatians 3:23a
"...we were kept under the law..."
Now don't brush off the meaning of that statement, "under the Law." We don't know if any of you have ever been under a heavy burden, but have any of you seen the slaves or women of foreign lands caring water pots or farm produce to market, we're just amazed at these women. Some of them would unload a ship that had rice on board, and would lay a 100 pound sack on their shoulders or heads, some of these little women you would swear must be 90 years old. They would just take right off with that huge bag of rice. Now most of us would have no idea of what that would feel like, but can you imagine it? That was a burden. Now, we speak of the donkeys and oxen of the ancient times as beasts of burden, because they were loaded down with their commodity. And again most of us don't know what it's like to carry a burden. It's just something that weighs you down, but listen that's what the Law was. It was a burden that just rested on the shoulders of the people that were under it, and they knew nothing of liberty and they knew nothing except constant fear of the Law because of the severity of the penalty for breaking it. So before the faith way, Israel was under the burden of the Law constantly 24 hours a day. Paul is speaking as though to Hebrews only throughout this epistle and that is why he uses this kind of terminology. And they were -
Galatians 3:23b
"...shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed."
One of our favorite statements concerning Scripture and that is "it's a progressive revelation." and remember that inspiration of revelation is illumination or divine Light and Truth and that it is upon this that Christ builds His Church. God didn't tell everything up in front, and so when He gave the Law did He tell Israel and the rest of the world that one day Christ would die and all of a sudden the word, Grace? No, He didn't. So here they went 1500 years under the Law and then progressively God reveals these tremendous doctrines of Grace or the mysteries, secret things of God through the Apostle Paul. So paraphrasing verse 23 it says, "So before the faith way came we were kept under the Law shut in (they were shut-ins just like an elderly person is when they have no way of getting to market on their own) during this time with no alternative way out, until the faith which should after-wards be revealed." As we showed the whole world came under the influence of the Ten Commandments , not just the Hebrews. There is our releasing then of something that had been kept secret. We're always referring to Paul's use of that word, so come back with us to the Ephesians chapter 3 and let's look at verse 9. This verse says it all in a nut shell.
Ephesians 3:9
"And to make (Paul through his apostleship) all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, (secret) which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:"
Now there is the reason, it had to be revealed. It had been kept secret all the way up through the Old Testament, there was not a word about God going to Gentiles with the Gospel of the Grace of God. As we saw recently in Galatians 3:14 that salvation came to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, but in the Old Testament it was supposed to have been through the Nation of Israel. Israel was to be the light to the Gentiles, Israel was to have been the vehicle, but they dropped the ball, they rejected it in unbelief. And then what did God do? He opened up the windows heaven for Grace to be revealed through the Apostle Paul, and revealed to that man these secrets that had been kept in the mind and heart of God all the way up through the Old Testament economy. We are now in a time that these things are now clearly revealed. Looking at the fact that Grace has now been revealed - another verse comes to mind in Romans chapter 15, verse 4, all of these verses are so appropriate. This is exactly where we're coming from.
"But before faith came, we were kept under the law,..." Here we've got to explain something. You've heard us say it and you've heard others teach that all the way back to Adam the criteria for salvation was trust. "Taking God at His word." Faith began just as soon as God dealt with Adam and Eve after they had sinned. Adam had to take God at His word. So what does this verse mean?
Galatians 3:23a
"But before faith came..." Well without doing any violence to Scripture, and we hope it can enhances it, after the word faith we like to put "way." we think that will help. And we could add.... before the faith way came...
Galatians 3:23a
"....before the faith way came we were kept under the law..."
What do we mean by that? All we're saying is that we're not under Law, but rather under Grace, and Grace says, "Keep the Law?" No! Grace says, "By Faith, and Faith alone + nothing!" Remember we were only under the penalty of sin and death or the law of sin and death because we were separated from the commonwealth of God. So we like to think that clarifies it, at least hopefully. Before the faith way, before men and women could be saved by faith + nothing, without the Law, now again that actually means the regulations and ordinances which were added only to be a corral or tutor for the nation of Israel, only. As a means to keep them in check and separated from the influence of the spirit of the world. But it did not as they like Adam chose to partake of that which God told them NOT TO DO! The priest's polluted what God had given them. We know that it didn't work, as they became totally corrupted and profane before God. The reason Jesus came was to bring them back into a right relationship. But before that came in - and here Paul goes back and speaks as a Hebrew-
Galatians 3:23a
"...we were kept under the law..."
Now don't brush off the meaning of that statement, "under the Law." We don't know if any of you have ever been under a heavy burden, but have any of you seen the slaves or women of foreign lands caring water pots or farm produce to market, we're just amazed at these women. Some of them would unload a ship that had rice on board, and would lay a 100 pound sack on their shoulders or heads, some of these little women you would swear must be 90 years old. They would just take right off with that huge bag of rice. Now most of us would have no idea of what that would feel like, but can you imagine it? That was a burden. Now, we speak of the donkeys and oxen of the ancient times as beasts of burden, because they were loaded down with their commodity. And again most of us don't know what it's like to carry a burden. It's just something that weighs you down, but listen that's what the Law was. It was a burden that just rested on the shoulders of the people that were under it, and they knew nothing of liberty and they knew nothing except constant fear of the Law because of the severity of the penalty for breaking it. So before the faith way, Israel was under the burden of the Law constantly 24 hours a day. Paul is speaking as though to Hebrews only throughout this epistle and that is why he uses this kind of terminology. And they were -
Galatians 3:23b
"...shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed."
One of our favorite statements concerning Scripture and that is "it's a progressive revelation." and remember that inspiration of revelation is illumination or divine Light and Truth and that it is upon this that Christ builds His Church. God didn't tell everything up in front, and so when He gave the Law did He tell Israel and the rest of the world that one day Christ would die and all of a sudden the word, Grace? No, He didn't. So here they went 1500 years under the Law and then progressively God reveals these tremendous doctrines of Grace or the mysteries, secret things of God through the Apostle Paul. So paraphrasing verse 23 it says, "So before the faith way came we were kept under the Law shut in (they were shut-ins just like an elderly person is when they have no way of getting to market on their own) during this time with no alternative way out, until the faith which should after-wards be revealed." As we showed the whole world came under the influence of the Ten Commandments , not just the Hebrews. There is our releasing then of something that had been kept secret. We're always referring to Paul's use of that word, so come back with us to the Ephesians chapter 3 and let's look at verse 9. This verse says it all in a nut shell.
Ephesians 3:9
"And to make (Paul through his apostleship) all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, (secret) which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:"
Now there is the reason, it had to be revealed. It had been kept secret all the way up through the Old Testament, there was not a word about God going to Gentiles with the Gospel of the Grace of God. As we saw recently in Galatians 3:14 that salvation came to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, but in the Old Testament it was supposed to have been through the Nation of Israel. Israel was to be the light to the Gentiles, Israel was to have been the vehicle, but they dropped the ball, they rejected it in unbelief. And then what did God do? He opened up the windows heaven for Grace to be revealed through the Apostle Paul, and revealed to that man these secrets that had been kept in the mind and heart of God all the way up through the Old Testament economy. We are now in a time that these things are now clearly revealed. Looking at the fact that Grace has now been revealed - another verse comes to mind in Romans chapter 15, verse 4, all of these verses are so appropriate. This is exactly where we're coming from.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Part LXXIV on The Study of Galatians
Romans 3:9b - 10
"... for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one:" What do you think the Pharisees thought when they heard that? Oh, they could have put him to death, because they were righteous in their own eyes. And here the apostle is making it so plain that no one is righteous, not even the most religious Hebrew. And of course the crowing verse of all this is verse 23. This is a verse that we've used over and over. This is a verse that every person who wants salvation has to start at. For "You can never be saved until you realize just how lost you are!" Now we can't put it any better than that, because that's what Romans 3:23 says.
Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Remember when we were back in the Four Gospels and Jesus gave the analogy of the 99 sheep, and we pointed out that everybody thinks they were safe in the fold according to the old hymn. But the 99 weren't safe in the fold at all, they were out on the desert without a shepherd, and sheep out on the desert as dumb as they are, and what are they? They're lost in 30 minutes or less, and they didn't know it. But that one little lamb that was caught in a crevice someplace bleeding his little throat dry, what did that little fellow know? That he was lost, and in trouble. So which one did the Lord save? The 99 or the one? The one. Why? Because it knew it was lost, and that is the true picture. Well it's the same way today. Multitudes are sitting in their Churches Sunday after Sunday and they think they're all right, but they will never be saved until they realize just how really lost they are. Like that little lamb in a crevice that had no hope unless the shepherd comes and find him. Well it's the same way with lost people today they have to understand that they're hopelessly lost, bankrupt and that God can save them and not until. We all like to Prodigal son have to come to ourselves before we can see our true condition and that is the Work of both the Holy Spirit and His revealing God's Word in us, too us. That is the purpose of our being placed by God in our first estate, just as it was for Israel but she failed to get it. Now back to Galatians once more and looking at verse 22 again.
Galatians 3:22
"But the Scripture (as we've just shown you) hath concluded all under sin, (Hebrew and Gentile) that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ (in other words by believing in His death, shed blood, His burial and His resurrection that those who would receive and believe that for salvation) might be given to them that believe." What? Eternal Life!
Remember it doesn't do any good to believe the Gospel until we realize that we're lost. See this is where it's so hard, especially for good people. They'll always say, "Well I'm not that bad, In fact I'm pretty good." Yeah they are, they're probably better than we are, but until they realize how lost they are spiritually, spiritually bankrupt and under the rule of Satan until they realize what the Scripture concludes, God can't save them. Oh, they maybe knowledgeable in the word of God but are still without true hope because they've never truly submitted their individual will to God's Will, death of all self sufficiency and the spirit that drives them. The spirit of the world and the prince of the power of the air. Some of these people want only the power gifts or what they think or feel is to be our true calling. Not knowing that the power has to do with our receiving the power to live this life in the Eternal Kingdom of our God now. They are without hope, and one day they're going to wake up and it's going to be too late. But always remember God has forgiven every sin. He has done everything that needs be done. Not only this but if our opinion is any different then God's word and Will reveals. Then we're still under the ordinances and regulations of the Law and the reading of the New Covenant scriptures of Acts chapter 9 through Hebrews will profit us nothing. As they are spiritual and are only spiritually discerned through the Holy Spirit. In fact the whole of the Bible can be discerned properly only by and through a clear spiritual eye and open ear. For this is the meaning of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14:
1Corithians 2:9-15
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit, spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth (discerns, understands) all things, yet he himself is judged (understood) of no man.” Now this is self explanatory in itself.
"... for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one:" What do you think the Pharisees thought when they heard that? Oh, they could have put him to death, because they were righteous in their own eyes. And here the apostle is making it so plain that no one is righteous, not even the most religious Hebrew. And of course the crowing verse of all this is verse 23. This is a verse that we've used over and over. This is a verse that every person who wants salvation has to start at. For "You can never be saved until you realize just how lost you are!" Now we can't put it any better than that, because that's what Romans 3:23 says.
Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Remember when we were back in the Four Gospels and Jesus gave the analogy of the 99 sheep, and we pointed out that everybody thinks they were safe in the fold according to the old hymn. But the 99 weren't safe in the fold at all, they were out on the desert without a shepherd, and sheep out on the desert as dumb as they are, and what are they? They're lost in 30 minutes or less, and they didn't know it. But that one little lamb that was caught in a crevice someplace bleeding his little throat dry, what did that little fellow know? That he was lost, and in trouble. So which one did the Lord save? The 99 or the one? The one. Why? Because it knew it was lost, and that is the true picture. Well it's the same way today. Multitudes are sitting in their Churches Sunday after Sunday and they think they're all right, but they will never be saved until they realize just how really lost they are. Like that little lamb in a crevice that had no hope unless the shepherd comes and find him. Well it's the same way with lost people today they have to understand that they're hopelessly lost, bankrupt and that God can save them and not until. We all like to Prodigal son have to come to ourselves before we can see our true condition and that is the Work of both the Holy Spirit and His revealing God's Word in us, too us. That is the purpose of our being placed by God in our first estate, just as it was for Israel but she failed to get it. Now back to Galatians once more and looking at verse 22 again.
Galatians 3:22
"But the Scripture (as we've just shown you) hath concluded all under sin, (Hebrew and Gentile) that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ (in other words by believing in His death, shed blood, His burial and His resurrection that those who would receive and believe that for salvation) might be given to them that believe." What? Eternal Life!
Remember it doesn't do any good to believe the Gospel until we realize that we're lost. See this is where it's so hard, especially for good people. They'll always say, "Well I'm not that bad, In fact I'm pretty good." Yeah they are, they're probably better than we are, but until they realize how lost they are spiritually, spiritually bankrupt and under the rule of Satan until they realize what the Scripture concludes, God can't save them. Oh, they maybe knowledgeable in the word of God but are still without true hope because they've never truly submitted their individual will to God's Will, death of all self sufficiency and the spirit that drives them. The spirit of the world and the prince of the power of the air. Some of these people want only the power gifts or what they think or feel is to be our true calling. Not knowing that the power has to do with our receiving the power to live this life in the Eternal Kingdom of our God now. They are without hope, and one day they're going to wake up and it's going to be too late. But always remember God has forgiven every sin. He has done everything that needs be done. Not only this but if our opinion is any different then God's word and Will reveals. Then we're still under the ordinances and regulations of the Law and the reading of the New Covenant scriptures of Acts chapter 9 through Hebrews will profit us nothing. As they are spiritual and are only spiritually discerned through the Holy Spirit. In fact the whole of the Bible can be discerned properly only by and through a clear spiritual eye and open ear. For this is the meaning of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14:
1Corithians 2:9-15
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit, spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth (discerns, understands) all things, yet he himself is judged (understood) of no man.” Now this is self explanatory in itself.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Part LXXIII on The Study of Galatians
Galatians 3:19
"Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed (singular Seed, the Christ) should come to whom the promise was made: and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." In other words this whole of all covenant promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and any others were spiritual. They never left the hands of spiritual beings (God-Yehovah and Yehovah-Christ Jesus), and as it was given to Abraham and all others, that's all they were. It was something that was heavenly in it's origin, and Abraham and the others were merely became the subject of it, but Abraham couldn't change it and neither could they, and even though their offspring would break it, and break it and break it as they did, God kept it settled, and He'd never going to go back on it. And that's why we can say with all the confidence in the world He's not through with the Hebrews. God hasn't finished His end of the covenant promises with them. Though they all were made with Christ as the end of them, or until Christ came as the end of time or the last days. If Israel would be like most of Christendom says, that they're off the board and God is all through with them, then all of the covenants fall apart. Do you understand that? The covenants won't fall apart because God is not through with Israel, and He is still going to finish and fulfill those covenant promises. Though in Christ they have been fulfilled but according to Psalm 2 their in suspension or have been put on hold during this Age. To see this we'd have to interject a brief study on the Lord last supper and all that took place from it to His resurrection and ascension. Now verse 20 almost says what I've been saying along.
Galatians 4:20
"Now a mediator (a go between) is not a mediator of one, but God is one." Well what does that mean? If you're going to have a controversy between two people and you bring in a mediator, and guess we're more aware of that through labor unions and management, even our loan contracts have an arbitrator clause in them and they can't get together on a contract. So what do they bring in? A mediator an arbitrator. And the purpose of the mediator is to make a meeting of the minds on each side. But God is not going to use a three person mediation. God is the mediator, and the instigator, and the fulfiller, and He and Christ are involved. Even man can't touch those covenants, it's impossible. So that's what it means then when it says God is ONE. Guess we could put it this way. He is the One and Only involved in a covenant, though as mans name maybe on it. He gives it, He carries it out, and He's going to complete it, and man has nothing to do with it. OK now verse 21. And this is a good question isn't it?
Galatians 3:21a
"Is the law then against the promises of God?..." If all the promises to Abraham were given without the Law, and they were remember. That was about 500 years before the Law was given to Moses. Does the Law come in and cancel the promises? Why No, it enhances them. Now we'll finish the verse.
Galatians 3:21b
"God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." Do you see what that says? That if it was possible for the Law to give eternal life, and the potential was there. Yes the potential was there but the Law did not have the power or authority within it all it had was condemnation. Because you see all the demands of the Holy God was in those Ten Commandments.
What it's here telling us is, that if a human being could have kept all Ten, would God have had to have let that person into His heaven? Why sure He would, because the Law was perfect, and anybody that could fulfill it he would have met God's demands, and then God could say, "Come on into my heaven." But what's the problem with that? No simply human person can or could do it. Nobody can keep the Ten Commandments other than Christ Himself. So the Law reverts right back to what we said it was before. It does nothing but condemn the whole human race. Day in and day out the Law is condemning good people and bad. See that's what is so sad, there are a lot of good upright nice people who for the most part keep the Law. They wouldn't dream of robbing a bank, or committing adultery. They wouldn't dream of gossiping but somewhere along the line they're going to fail. And if you fail one jot or title of the Law, then James says, you've broken them all. And so we're Law breakers, we don't stand a chance, by Law keeping. All right now verse 22. Here is the great answer to the even greater dilemma.
Galatians 3:22
"But the scripture (the Word of God) hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Now let's come back to Romans chapter 3 and see how this fits so beautifully again with Galatians.
Romans 3:9a
"What then? are we (Hebrews, Paul speaks of) better than they? (Gentiles) No, in no wise;..."
Now what did that do to the Jewish community? Oh! it just sent them into orbit. How dare that man tell people that Gentiles are just as good as us Hebrews. Because you see for almost 2000 years the Hebrews had heard that they're special. You're my covenant people, you have been set apart from the rest of the world. You're not to intermarry with them. You are to stay within your tribe. And now have this little Hebrew come out and say, "That there is no difference." No wonder the Hebrews plagued the Apostle Paul every step of his way. It just infuriated them that this man was attempting to take the salvation of Israel's God to those pagan Gentiles. Who ever heard of such a thing. So what they did was, they followed him from city to city and in anyway they could they tried to defeat him and his purpose. They plagued him until his death. Well this was the crowning reason. This may also be why that same area is now predominately Islamic because of the Hebrew revolt again Paul's doctrine of Grace. Remember that Esau and Ishmael's descendants fill that reign so their all related through Abraham, their as the sands of the sea in numbers. Now reading on in verse 22.
"Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed (singular Seed, the Christ) should come to whom the promise was made: and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." In other words this whole of all covenant promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and any others were spiritual. They never left the hands of spiritual beings (God-Yehovah and Yehovah-Christ Jesus), and as it was given to Abraham and all others, that's all they were. It was something that was heavenly in it's origin, and Abraham and the others were merely became the subject of it, but Abraham couldn't change it and neither could they, and even though their offspring would break it, and break it and break it as they did, God kept it settled, and He'd never going to go back on it. And that's why we can say with all the confidence in the world He's not through with the Hebrews. God hasn't finished His end of the covenant promises with them. Though they all were made with Christ as the end of them, or until Christ came as the end of time or the last days. If Israel would be like most of Christendom says, that they're off the board and God is all through with them, then all of the covenants fall apart. Do you understand that? The covenants won't fall apart because God is not through with Israel, and He is still going to finish and fulfill those covenant promises. Though in Christ they have been fulfilled but according to Psalm 2 their in suspension or have been put on hold during this Age. To see this we'd have to interject a brief study on the Lord last supper and all that took place from it to His resurrection and ascension. Now verse 20 almost says what I've been saying along.
Galatians 4:20
"Now a mediator (a go between) is not a mediator of one, but God is one." Well what does that mean? If you're going to have a controversy between two people and you bring in a mediator, and guess we're more aware of that through labor unions and management, even our loan contracts have an arbitrator clause in them and they can't get together on a contract. So what do they bring in? A mediator an arbitrator. And the purpose of the mediator is to make a meeting of the minds on each side. But God is not going to use a three person mediation. God is the mediator, and the instigator, and the fulfiller, and He and Christ are involved. Even man can't touch those covenants, it's impossible. So that's what it means then when it says God is ONE. Guess we could put it this way. He is the One and Only involved in a covenant, though as mans name maybe on it. He gives it, He carries it out, and He's going to complete it, and man has nothing to do with it. OK now verse 21. And this is a good question isn't it?
Galatians 3:21a
"Is the law then against the promises of God?..." If all the promises to Abraham were given without the Law, and they were remember. That was about 500 years before the Law was given to Moses. Does the Law come in and cancel the promises? Why No, it enhances them. Now we'll finish the verse.
Galatians 3:21b
"God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." Do you see what that says? That if it was possible for the Law to give eternal life, and the potential was there. Yes the potential was there but the Law did not have the power or authority within it all it had was condemnation. Because you see all the demands of the Holy God was in those Ten Commandments.
What it's here telling us is, that if a human being could have kept all Ten, would God have had to have let that person into His heaven? Why sure He would, because the Law was perfect, and anybody that could fulfill it he would have met God's demands, and then God could say, "Come on into my heaven." But what's the problem with that? No simply human person can or could do it. Nobody can keep the Ten Commandments other than Christ Himself. So the Law reverts right back to what we said it was before. It does nothing but condemn the whole human race. Day in and day out the Law is condemning good people and bad. See that's what is so sad, there are a lot of good upright nice people who for the most part keep the Law. They wouldn't dream of robbing a bank, or committing adultery. They wouldn't dream of gossiping but somewhere along the line they're going to fail. And if you fail one jot or title of the Law, then James says, you've broken them all. And so we're Law breakers, we don't stand a chance, by Law keeping. All right now verse 22. Here is the great answer to the even greater dilemma.
Galatians 3:22
"But the scripture (the Word of God) hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Now let's come back to Romans chapter 3 and see how this fits so beautifully again with Galatians.
Romans 3:9a
"What then? are we (Hebrews, Paul speaks of) better than they? (Gentiles) No, in no wise;..."
Now what did that do to the Jewish community? Oh! it just sent them into orbit. How dare that man tell people that Gentiles are just as good as us Hebrews. Because you see for almost 2000 years the Hebrews had heard that they're special. You're my covenant people, you have been set apart from the rest of the world. You're not to intermarry with them. You are to stay within your tribe. And now have this little Hebrew come out and say, "That there is no difference." No wonder the Hebrews plagued the Apostle Paul every step of his way. It just infuriated them that this man was attempting to take the salvation of Israel's God to those pagan Gentiles. Who ever heard of such a thing. So what they did was, they followed him from city to city and in anyway they could they tried to defeat him and his purpose. They plagued him until his death. Well this was the crowning reason. This may also be why that same area is now predominately Islamic because of the Hebrew revolt again Paul's doctrine of Grace. Remember that Esau and Ishmael's descendants fill that reign so their all related through Abraham, their as the sands of the sea in numbers. Now reading on in verse 22.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Part LXXII on The Study of Galatians
Matthew 24:37
"But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Well we're getting closer to this description of the earth today. Now come on down to verse 12 of Genesis chapter 6. We're always saying that when the Scripture repeats something 3 or 4 times in a matter of a few verses, it's there for emphasis, it's getting our attention. And here it come again:
Genesis 6:12-13
"And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me: for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." Was there anything to deter violence, and corruption? No. There were no laws, there were no systems of worship, there was a ritual that men could follow, but only a few of them knew and practiced it and this was the end result. Even after the destruction of the flood everything starts cranking up again (but remember God has always had His few exceptions, in this case it was Noah, Shem, Eber, and Abram) and it's heading right down that same old road, until they get to Babel, and then they're ready to embrace every evil, pagan concept of worship that you can imagine. All the Tower of Babel was was a place of worship, it was pagan, and it was ungodly. Out of it came all the immorality of the mythologies, and mythological gods and goddess, you name it, and once again God just saw it all, and said, "Now this time I'm not going to destroy them, but I am going to do something different.”
God turned to Abram, was he the only man that God could use. No, but God spoke to him and called him out out from among his people or fathers house and place of living. Then He gave him these promises. Then after Abram received all the promises, and the “I wills” of chapters 12, 15, and 17 and so forth. It is just here we need to see a place of change that is coming:
Genesis 17:19
"God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." from here look at chapter 21 verse 12
Genesis 21:12
" God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." This indicates and break or split in the road because Isaac is the son of promise through whom the promised seed of woman is to come not though Jacobs seed but Isaac's. Isaac was a son of righteousness or faith in God and Jacob is a practical man, though not as earthy as his brother Esau, one without faith there is the difference.
Now it comes to the place where God says, "Man has to understand what's right and what's wrong, because he doesn't seem to get it." So He gave the Law and its codicils or statutes and ordinances, and He laid it down with authority. "Thou shalt have no other God's before me." Well right off the bat what did that fly in the face of? Everything that had taken place at Babel, because Babel was the beginning of all the false worships and every man doing his own thing. Then God comes on through with the rest of the Ten Commandments. Now remember, and very few people understand this. Percentage wise it would be way down but what does Romans 3:19-20 say? These are verses that very few people even know are in their Bible, and yet they say so much. Remember what we just saw in Galatians. That the Law was added because of sin, it was the corral or tutor for the Hebrews until Christ came. It did not take sin away from people, but rather it merely showed them the utter sinfulness sin and it could only condemn them.
Romans 3:19
"Now we know (full knowledge) that what things soever the law saith, (the Ten Commandments in particular) it saith to them who are under the law; (who was that? Israel. Only Israel was put under the Law, but the power of it, the convicting part of it didn't stop with Israel, but rather went out to the whole human race.) that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Now you see that's exactly the opposite of what most people think is the function of the Law. Most people think that the Law was given to help people do right, do the best they could, and God would somehow wink and say, "Yeah you didn't do too bad, I'll let you in." But you see that wasn't the purpose of the Law. The Law was given for only one purpose and that was to show mankind how far they fallen from God's required standard. No man that has ever lived could keep the Ten Commandments, because it's impossible for the carnal or earthy man (only the Spiritual Man the giver of the Law lived in it is required demands, Jesus). So it was given for that purpose alone. Now verse 20 makes it so clear. Now since all the world has become guilty by the giving of the Law:
Romans 2:20
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Oh, if our friends don't learn anything else, we would hope that they'd learn this. That the Law can do nothing but convict a person of their utter sinfulness. So that's why it was added. Up until this time of the flood God couldn't impute all that wackiness. He couldn't put it to those people's account because they weren't breaking any written code s or laws. For all early man had was his conscience and the Holy Spirit. Now that's hard for us to comprehend and we know it is. We say, "Now wait a minute when they come up before the Great White Throne the books aren't going to be open for them like they will be for every one since the Law?" No, not in the same way.
Now they're going to come before the Great White Throne, and they're going to be consigned to their place of judgment but God is not going to be able to say, "Look at all the Law-breaking that you did." Because they had no law, all they had was they're conscience and you can't break a law if there isn't one. But as soon as the Law was given then the whole world became responsible. Now there is no question, adultery is sin. Yes, thievery is sin, yes coveting is sin, and all the way down through the Ten Commandments. So now all the world has been made guilty because now there is no excuse, " Well I didn't know there was a law against that.” Now we know and that's what it means. Now back to the Book of Galatians. Verse 19 again-
"But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Well we're getting closer to this description of the earth today. Now come on down to verse 12 of Genesis chapter 6. We're always saying that when the Scripture repeats something 3 or 4 times in a matter of a few verses, it's there for emphasis, it's getting our attention. And here it come again:
Genesis 6:12-13
"And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me: for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." Was there anything to deter violence, and corruption? No. There were no laws, there were no systems of worship, there was a ritual that men could follow, but only a few of them knew and practiced it and this was the end result. Even after the destruction of the flood everything starts cranking up again (but remember God has always had His few exceptions, in this case it was Noah, Shem, Eber, and Abram) and it's heading right down that same old road, until they get to Babel, and then they're ready to embrace every evil, pagan concept of worship that you can imagine. All the Tower of Babel was was a place of worship, it was pagan, and it was ungodly. Out of it came all the immorality of the mythologies, and mythological gods and goddess, you name it, and once again God just saw it all, and said, "Now this time I'm not going to destroy them, but I am going to do something different.”
God turned to Abram, was he the only man that God could use. No, but God spoke to him and called him out out from among his people or fathers house and place of living. Then He gave him these promises. Then after Abram received all the promises, and the “I wills” of chapters 12, 15, and 17 and so forth. It is just here we need to see a place of change that is coming:
Genesis 17:19
"God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." from here look at chapter 21 verse 12
Genesis 21:12
" God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." This indicates and break or split in the road because Isaac is the son of promise through whom the promised seed of woman is to come not though Jacobs seed but Isaac's. Isaac was a son of righteousness or faith in God and Jacob is a practical man, though not as earthy as his brother Esau, one without faith there is the difference.
Now it comes to the place where God says, "Man has to understand what's right and what's wrong, because he doesn't seem to get it." So He gave the Law and its codicils or statutes and ordinances, and He laid it down with authority. "Thou shalt have no other God's before me." Well right off the bat what did that fly in the face of? Everything that had taken place at Babel, because Babel was the beginning of all the false worships and every man doing his own thing. Then God comes on through with the rest of the Ten Commandments. Now remember, and very few people understand this. Percentage wise it would be way down but what does Romans 3:19-20 say? These are verses that very few people even know are in their Bible, and yet they say so much. Remember what we just saw in Galatians. That the Law was added because of sin, it was the corral or tutor for the Hebrews until Christ came. It did not take sin away from people, but rather it merely showed them the utter sinfulness sin and it could only condemn them.
Romans 3:19
"Now we know (full knowledge) that what things soever the law saith, (the Ten Commandments in particular) it saith to them who are under the law; (who was that? Israel. Only Israel was put under the Law, but the power of it, the convicting part of it didn't stop with Israel, but rather went out to the whole human race.) that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Now you see that's exactly the opposite of what most people think is the function of the Law. Most people think that the Law was given to help people do right, do the best they could, and God would somehow wink and say, "Yeah you didn't do too bad, I'll let you in." But you see that wasn't the purpose of the Law. The Law was given for only one purpose and that was to show mankind how far they fallen from God's required standard. No man that has ever lived could keep the Ten Commandments, because it's impossible for the carnal or earthy man (only the Spiritual Man the giver of the Law lived in it is required demands, Jesus). So it was given for that purpose alone. Now verse 20 makes it so clear. Now since all the world has become guilty by the giving of the Law:
Romans 2:20
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Oh, if our friends don't learn anything else, we would hope that they'd learn this. That the Law can do nothing but convict a person of their utter sinfulness. So that's why it was added. Up until this time of the flood God couldn't impute all that wackiness. He couldn't put it to those people's account because they weren't breaking any written code s or laws. For all early man had was his conscience and the Holy Spirit. Now that's hard for us to comprehend and we know it is. We say, "Now wait a minute when they come up before the Great White Throne the books aren't going to be open for them like they will be for every one since the Law?" No, not in the same way.
Now they're going to come before the Great White Throne, and they're going to be consigned to their place of judgment but God is not going to be able to say, "Look at all the Law-breaking that you did." Because they had no law, all they had was they're conscience and you can't break a law if there isn't one. But as soon as the Law was given then the whole world became responsible. Now there is no question, adultery is sin. Yes, thievery is sin, yes coveting is sin, and all the way down through the Ten Commandments. So now all the world has been made guilty because now there is no excuse, " Well I didn't know there was a law against that.” Now we know and that's what it means. Now back to the Book of Galatians. Verse 19 again-
Monday, May 21, 2012
Part LXXI on The Study of Galatians
Galatians 3:18
"For if the inheritance be of the law, (that is the Mosaic Law and its system. If everything that is of our spiritual inheritance is concerned with the Law) it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise."
As we saw what did God do with Abraham? Promise, Promise, and Promise. I will, I will, I will, and the Law because it is based on statuettes and ordinances couldn't fulfill any of those promises (the I wills), and because all the Law could do was condemn the Hebrews to death. It didn't fulfill any promises per say, and so if the Law was going to do the job then it was no more a promise. But God gave the covenant based on promise. In other words when God said it, that settles it, and that's where we come in by faith. Now verse 19 is a verse we really want to get into.
Galatians 3:19
"Wherefore then serveth the law? (if it's part of the promises, and it's certainly not part of Grace, well what was the purpose of it? Why did God ever give the Law to Israel in the first place? Because God doesn't do anything without a valid reason, and He did give the Law for a reason) It was added because of transgressions,..." How many years of human history had transpired from the time of Adam until Moses received the Law? 2500 years mankind went without a written Law till God gave the Law to Moses. (Form day one man was given the Holy Spirit as a guide for his conscience, then after Noah's flood God added government and of course His Holy spirit was there to be a guide for mans conscience but in limited authority or capacity) So the Law was added 2500 years after the human race had begun because of transgressions, sins. Let's go back and look how sin ran rampant during that time in Genesis chapter 6. Up until the Law was given at Mount Sinai there was a system of worship. There was limited organized religion as we call it. Because there was no written, "Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not." And so what happened? Well here we have a good example of that in this chapter.
Genesis 6:5
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Now remember that the Holy Spirit was there but in limited capacity as we know through the accounts of men such as Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem and others up through or until Jacob. Even Jacobs sons were men of valor and knew and trusted God but their descendents did not. All the while mans track record was this for the most part so can we imagine that? We're getting close to that time again. But evil things were all that people could think about. Things that were evil and wicked, and dishonest, always trying to cook up a crooked deal. You know we get a kick out of our law-making process. Just as soon as our government passes a law, being a republic but under a democratic form. When we're in a coffee shop anywhere all over America what are people doing? Writing on napkins, and just what are people doing? Figuring out a way to beat the law. Have you ever thought of that? Especially in programs. When we were lads in Wisconsin what would a farmer or businessman from way back do? Because of the farm programs. O they had their place, but, shoot, they'd could come out with a new farm plan and those farmers and businessmen, would gather around each other and sit and try to figure how to beat the government every time.
Well it isn't just the farmer, it's everybody. They're always out to beat the system. Well as soon as enough of them get away with it what does the legislature have to do? Pass another law, and it just keeps on feeding on it. See? That's the human race. Just as soon as people figure out how to beat the system the system has to correct it. Well now we're up against it with high tech stuff. In fact we saw just yesterday, it's getting easier and easier for people to rob from the system through the computers. But back here in Genesis chapter 6 all people could think about was how to be wicked in some other way. Now verse 11.
Genesis 6:11a
"The earth also was corrupt before God,..."
What do we think of when we see the word corrupt? The first thing we think of is an old rotten potato. Now there's nothing that smells or looks worse than a rotten potato. In corruption its something that is vile, and something that we don't even want to touch, something that smells to high heaven. Well God said, “The whole world was corrupt”.
Genesis 6:11b
"...and the earth was filled with violence." Corruption and violence went hand and hand, and it's not that much different today. In fact what did the Lord say in Matthew 24?
e system through the computers. But back here in Genesis chapter 6 all people could think about was how to be wicked in some other way. Now verse 11.
"For if the inheritance be of the law, (that is the Mosaic Law and its system. If everything that is of our spiritual inheritance is concerned with the Law) it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise."
As we saw what did God do with Abraham? Promise, Promise, and Promise. I will, I will, I will, and the Law because it is based on statuettes and ordinances couldn't fulfill any of those promises (the I wills), and because all the Law could do was condemn the Hebrews to death. It didn't fulfill any promises per say, and so if the Law was going to do the job then it was no more a promise. But God gave the covenant based on promise. In other words when God said it, that settles it, and that's where we come in by faith. Now verse 19 is a verse we really want to get into.
Galatians 3:19
"Wherefore then serveth the law? (if it's part of the promises, and it's certainly not part of Grace, well what was the purpose of it? Why did God ever give the Law to Israel in the first place? Because God doesn't do anything without a valid reason, and He did give the Law for a reason) It was added because of transgressions,..." How many years of human history had transpired from the time of Adam until Moses received the Law? 2500 years mankind went without a written Law till God gave the Law to Moses. (Form day one man was given the Holy Spirit as a guide for his conscience, then after Noah's flood God added government and of course His Holy spirit was there to be a guide for mans conscience but in limited authority or capacity) So the Law was added 2500 years after the human race had begun because of transgressions, sins. Let's go back and look how sin ran rampant during that time in Genesis chapter 6. Up until the Law was given at Mount Sinai there was a system of worship. There was limited organized religion as we call it. Because there was no written, "Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not." And so what happened? Well here we have a good example of that in this chapter.
Genesis 6:5
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Now remember that the Holy Spirit was there but in limited capacity as we know through the accounts of men such as Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem and others up through or until Jacob. Even Jacobs sons were men of valor and knew and trusted God but their descendents did not. All the while mans track record was this for the most part so can we imagine that? We're getting close to that time again. But evil things were all that people could think about. Things that were evil and wicked, and dishonest, always trying to cook up a crooked deal. You know we get a kick out of our law-making process. Just as soon as our government passes a law, being a republic but under a democratic form. When we're in a coffee shop anywhere all over America what are people doing? Writing on napkins, and just what are people doing? Figuring out a way to beat the law. Have you ever thought of that? Especially in programs. When we were lads in Wisconsin what would a farmer or businessman from way back do? Because of the farm programs. O they had their place, but, shoot, they'd could come out with a new farm plan and those farmers and businessmen, would gather around each other and sit and try to figure how to beat the government every time.
Well it isn't just the farmer, it's everybody. They're always out to beat the system. Well as soon as enough of them get away with it what does the legislature have to do? Pass another law, and it just keeps on feeding on it. See? That's the human race. Just as soon as people figure out how to beat the system the system has to correct it. Well now we're up against it with high tech stuff. In fact we saw just yesterday, it's getting easier and easier for people to rob from the system through the computers. But back here in Genesis chapter 6 all people could think about was how to be wicked in some other way. Now verse 11.
Genesis 6:11a
"The earth also was corrupt before God,..."
What do we think of when we see the word corrupt? The first thing we think of is an old rotten potato. Now there's nothing that smells or looks worse than a rotten potato. In corruption its something that is vile, and something that we don't even want to touch, something that smells to high heaven. Well God said, “The whole world was corrupt”.
Genesis 6:11b
"...and the earth was filled with violence." Corruption and violence went hand and hand, and it's not that much different today. In fact what did the Lord say in Matthew 24?
e system through the computers. But back here in Genesis chapter 6 all people could think about was how to be wicked in some other way. Now verse 11.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Part LXX on The Study of Galatians
Genesis 15:13
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed (now here seed is plural, God is talking about the whole Nation of Israel.) shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, (speaking of Egypt) and shall serve them; (in slavery) and they shall afflict them four hundred years:"
Now let's come over to Exodus chapter 12:40.
Exodus 12:40-42a
"Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. 41. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. 42a It is a night to be much observed..." Now that was the night of the Passover when Israel begins the exodus out of Egypt. Now we would like for us to come back to the Book of Acts chapter 7. Stephen in this chapter is rehearsing the whole history of Israel. Just like Paul does a little later on in the Book of Acts.
Acts 7:6
"And God spake on this wise, That his seed (the offspring of Abraham) should sojourn in a strange land; and they should bring into bondage, and entreat them evil (not 430 but now it's) four hundred years."
Is that a contradiction? No! It's just simply a benchmark from where they measured time. Remember at Ur when God first spoke to Abraham it would seem that Abraham was at that time 50 years old. So he leaves Ur and migrates all the way up the Euphrates valley to this place in Syria call Haran. And there they stop until his father Terah dies. Then after Terah dies we find Abraham and Lot, and Sarah are now ready to move down into the land of Canaan. Now we can pretty much figure out from Scripture that when he left Haran he was 75 years old. So 25 years after the promise God made to Abraham, he still doesn't have a child. Now when we start going back on the chronology of all of this the 430 years we find that it begins from the time he left Haran and came down to Canaan until Moses led the children out in what we call the Exodus for a total of 430 years. Now the 400 years that Stephen spoke of is from the time that Isaac was 5 years old and Ishmael is sent out into the wilderness till Moses leads the people out. So it's just a matter of a benchmark of time. It depends on from what event we began counting. Are we going to start from Haran or when Isaac is 5 years old? Back to Galatians chapter 3 verse 18.
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed (now here seed is plural, God is talking about the whole Nation of Israel.) shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, (speaking of Egypt) and shall serve them; (in slavery) and they shall afflict them four hundred years:"
Now let's come over to Exodus chapter 12:40.
Exodus 12:40-42a
"Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. 41. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. 42a It is a night to be much observed..." Now that was the night of the Passover when Israel begins the exodus out of Egypt. Now we would like for us to come back to the Book of Acts chapter 7. Stephen in this chapter is rehearsing the whole history of Israel. Just like Paul does a little later on in the Book of Acts.
Acts 7:6
"And God spake on this wise, That his seed (the offspring of Abraham) should sojourn in a strange land; and they should bring into bondage, and entreat them evil (not 430 but now it's) four hundred years."
Is that a contradiction? No! It's just simply a benchmark from where they measured time. Remember at Ur when God first spoke to Abraham it would seem that Abraham was at that time 50 years old. So he leaves Ur and migrates all the way up the Euphrates valley to this place in Syria call Haran. And there they stop until his father Terah dies. Then after Terah dies we find Abraham and Lot, and Sarah are now ready to move down into the land of Canaan. Now we can pretty much figure out from Scripture that when he left Haran he was 75 years old. So 25 years after the promise God made to Abraham, he still doesn't have a child. Now when we start going back on the chronology of all of this the 430 years we find that it begins from the time he left Haran and came down to Canaan until Moses led the children out in what we call the Exodus for a total of 430 years. Now the 400 years that Stephen spoke of is from the time that Isaac was 5 years old and Ishmael is sent out into the wilderness till Moses leads the people out. So it's just a matter of a benchmark of time. It depends on from what event we began counting. Are we going to start from Haran or when Isaac is 5 years old? Back to Galatians chapter 3 verse 18.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Part LXIX on The Study of Galatians
Genesis 21:12
"And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, (in other words because he had sent Ishmael out into the desert) and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now the word "seed" in the Hebrew is like "sheep" in the English. And that is if we've got one over there it's a sheep. If we've got 5 or 6 down here it's still sheep. Well it's the same way with seed in the Hebrew. So in the Scripture the only way we can tell the difference is by watching the context. Is the Scripture speaking of the many which would be the offspring of Jacob who becomes Israel, the tribes, and multitudes of people or is it speaking of the singular the "Seed" which was Christ! Now this one in verse 12 is singular. The Lord is not speaking of the millions of people from the 12 tribes. Look at the last part of verse 12 again.
Genesis 21:12b
"...hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy (singular) seed be called."
So we have this constant promise according to the Abrahamic Covenant that through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the 12 sons would come the Messiah. Not through Ishmael, not through Esau but through Isaac. Now we see the Muslim world argues with that because they claim that the Old Testament has been polluted, and distorted (these claims being true don't change its language and truth), and that in reality Ishmael was the promised seed. Well we can see that's how it's so easy to confuse people and lead them astray. But our Bible being the Word of God that it is, we can rest on it that it was through Isaac that the "Seed" singular would come. Now let's come back to Galatians chapter 3 again and pick it up in verse 16 again.
Galatians 3:16
"Now to Abraham and his seed (the singular seed, Isaac, and not the whole nation in this setting) were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ."
So this is why everyone of us, regardless of where we are in human history, we are all benefiting from this Abrahamic Covenant through whom all the world would be blessed. This is also why we can say that all the Old Testament and its Covenants were fulfilled in Christ. Because they were spoken to or promised to Him, who was unseen and unknown of at that time. Yehovah God was calling Himself forward or into being as the son of man. Now let's move on to verse 17. Now Paul says -
Galatians 3:17
"And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in (in the person of) Christ, (and now he's talking about) the law, (the Law was a covenant just like the Abraham's or Davids Covenant were covenants. They were agreements that God made and which He could never change or withdraw. It's settled forever, because God made it, and this Law covenant) which was four hundred and thirty years after,..." 430 years later Israel is going to come out of Egypt (a type of the world) and receive the Law at Sinai (the wilderness called sin). Now we've got to stop here for a moment because here is one of the places in Scripture where the scoffer likes to scoff and say, "see the Scripture contradicts itself." Here it says 430 years. In another place it says 400 years. Well what's going on? Well believe us there's no contradiction at all. Again let's come back to Genesis chapter 15, and set the record straight. Here God is speaking before Abraham's name was changed.
"And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, (in other words because he had sent Ishmael out into the desert) and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now the word "seed" in the Hebrew is like "sheep" in the English. And that is if we've got one over there it's a sheep. If we've got 5 or 6 down here it's still sheep. Well it's the same way with seed in the Hebrew. So in the Scripture the only way we can tell the difference is by watching the context. Is the Scripture speaking of the many which would be the offspring of Jacob who becomes Israel, the tribes, and multitudes of people or is it speaking of the singular the "Seed" which was Christ! Now this one in verse 12 is singular. The Lord is not speaking of the millions of people from the 12 tribes. Look at the last part of verse 12 again.
Genesis 21:12b
"...hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy (singular) seed be called."
So we have this constant promise according to the Abrahamic Covenant that through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the 12 sons would come the Messiah. Not through Ishmael, not through Esau but through Isaac. Now we see the Muslim world argues with that because they claim that the Old Testament has been polluted, and distorted (these claims being true don't change its language and truth), and that in reality Ishmael was the promised seed. Well we can see that's how it's so easy to confuse people and lead them astray. But our Bible being the Word of God that it is, we can rest on it that it was through Isaac that the "Seed" singular would come. Now let's come back to Galatians chapter 3 again and pick it up in verse 16 again.
Galatians 3:16
"Now to Abraham and his seed (the singular seed, Isaac, and not the whole nation in this setting) were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ."
So this is why everyone of us, regardless of where we are in human history, we are all benefiting from this Abrahamic Covenant through whom all the world would be blessed. This is also why we can say that all the Old Testament and its Covenants were fulfilled in Christ. Because they were spoken to or promised to Him, who was unseen and unknown of at that time. Yehovah God was calling Himself forward or into being as the son of man. Now let's move on to verse 17. Now Paul says -
Galatians 3:17
"And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in (in the person of) Christ, (and now he's talking about) the law, (the Law was a covenant just like the Abraham's or Davids Covenant were covenants. They were agreements that God made and which He could never change or withdraw. It's settled forever, because God made it, and this Law covenant) which was four hundred and thirty years after,..." 430 years later Israel is going to come out of Egypt (a type of the world) and receive the Law at Sinai (the wilderness called sin). Now we've got to stop here for a moment because here is one of the places in Scripture where the scoffer likes to scoff and say, "see the Scripture contradicts itself." Here it says 430 years. In another place it says 400 years. Well what's going on? Well believe us there's no contradiction at all. Again let's come back to Genesis chapter 15, and set the record straight. Here God is speaking before Abraham's name was changed.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Part LXVIII on The Study of Galatians
Genesis 3:15
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; (see the language? And the seed of the woman, the body prepared for Christ Jesus) it shall bruise thy head, (Christ defeated Satan at the cross and finished it all there, then in victory rose again) and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Satan also got his licks in by virtue of making Christ suffer)
All that's the beginning of the promise then of the seed of the woman. It would come through the female side of the human race, not from Adam, but from the woman, and we can follow this all the way through scripture. As the red thread of redemption runs from beginning to its end in Christ Jesus. Now if we will go to Genesis chapter 12, and let's look at a portion of scripture that most of us have worn out our Bible, and we call it the Abrahamic Covenant. We maintain that it's one of the most important portions of the whole Old Testament. If we don't understand the Abrahamic Covenant then the rest of the Bible is like a mist. We just can't see it clearly! But once we get an understanding of this covenant, then everything falls into place. Now don't forget the seed of the woman back there in Genesis 3:15. As that same seed is not only Christ's body fore told but is our spiritual seed the size of a mustard seed hidden deep within us. When it is awakened within us by the illumination of the Gospel Light and the Holy Spirit we as a young plant come to newness of life, or are become born from above.
Genesis 12:1
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, (in Genesis 11:31) Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: Remember when God says, "I will" what is that? It's a promise that He's going to do it, and nothing in heaven or earth will ever stop Him. So He says, "I will shew thee a land." Now verse 2.
Genesis 12:2-3
"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: 3. And I will bless them that bless thee, and (I will) curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Now that's a bunch of promises isn't it? That's a truck load of promises that were promised to this one man. Now on the surface it doesn't seem that great, but all of human history since 2000 BC is resting on these promises, and God has kept every one of them. Abraham became a great man. He's still thought of as one of the great men of history. The scriptures uphold him as a great man. God blessed him in his progeny, and God has blessed those who bless Israel. God has cursed those who cursed Israel, and if we think we're stretching the point, then you don't know human history. All we have to do is go back into human history, and every nation that has ever come down hard on the Hebrews have gone down the tube, right on up through our present system of nations. Anyone that has turned against the Nation of Israel goes down the tube whether they like it or not. That's why we've maintained for the past 25 plus years that as long as America remains a friend of Israel then America is going to be in pretty safe straits. But if we ever turn on the Nation of Israel and stab them in the back then America is going to go down the tube just like all the others have.
Now we might say, "What are you talking about?" Well Spain is probably one of the best examples. Now if you know American history, who were the explorers that really covered a good part of North America? The Spaniards. Spain was riding on the crest of national power and empire, and then in 1492, which was a little before some of the great explorers, remember God's wheels turn slowly. But in 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella made the decree that every Hebrew would either be out of Spain, convert to Catholicism, or be dead by such and such a day. So there was a great exodus out of Spain, and it wasn't but a 100 years and what was Spain? Nothing! Just a blimp on history, and so it's always been with every empire that has turned on the Hebrews, down they go, and it all comes back to this covenant promise, that, "He will bless them that bless the Nation of Israel, and He would curse them who curse the Nation of Israel."
But whatever way things go one promise is secure and that is through the man Abraham all of the families of the earth would receive a blessing. And that came about with their Messiah. When Christ came and finished the work of the Cross, He became then a blessing out of the line of Abraham, but a blessing for the whole human race, and that's where we are. Through Jesus came the promised Holy Spirit as the gift to all mankind. Remember when we looked at Romans chapter 11 that He broke of the branches of natural Israel off the vine, and He grafted in the Gentiles? Oh we love that chapter. And when He sat Israel aside for a season, He brought the whole Gentile world into that place of privilege.
Not that we're all saved, but we're brought into that place of privilege where we now have an opportunity for salvation based again on the promise made to Abraham.We all like Israel are placed by God within the tutor or as we've likened it inside a corral at conversion, to receive redemption with the deposit of the Holy Spirit. Its then His assignment as our comforter, teacher, trainer and guide to bring through the wilderness to the gate or the door of crisis, the cross of Christ. He does this by way of revealing Christ to us as we're to learn Christ as He is revealed from Genesis through the four gospels and up to Acts chapter 11, the Old Testament. It is while we're learning Christ in this fashion that The Holy spirit also reveals our undoneness and the utter sinfulness of sin and then the Fathers Will for us all, death to that old mans nature. It is just here that we face the split in the road which Jacob and Israel's wanderings in the wilderness for forty years symbolizes. For this is repeated in Acts with Peter and Paul, Peter being the way of Israel, spiritual blindness, and Paul being the way of revelation and enter into the promised Canaan Land which is Christ by way of the purchasing of the Pearl of greatest price, Christ through death.
Oh it's fascinating when we study this, and the whole human race for the past 1960 + years as Gentiles have been resting and feeding on the fatness of the root of Abraham while Israel has been out there in a dispersion. But the day is coming and we think it is getting close, where God is once again going to shut the door on the Gentile world. He'll break them off from that grafted position, and then Israel will be grafted back in again as Paul says in Romans chapter 11. As it also ties into God's timeline as seen in Psalm 2.
At that time the Gentiles will find themselves again where they were before - without a Messiah and outside the covenant promises. Well we hope to have seen the promises of I will, I will, I will and all the way up through Abraham's life God is constantly promising. Now remember some of these things took years before they were consummated. This is why the man grew impatient and finally succumbed to the temptation to use a slave girl. For after all he couldn't have a nation of people if he didn't have even one son. So that gave rise to the birth of Ishmael. Now before we leave the Book of Genesis come on over to chapter 21:12. We're going to follow this "seed" concept for a little bit. In this chapter Ishmael has reached the age of tormenting little Isaac. Isaac is now about 5 years old, and so Ishmael and his mother Hagar are sent out into the wilderness at God's instructions.
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; (see the language? And the seed of the woman, the body prepared for Christ Jesus) it shall bruise thy head, (Christ defeated Satan at the cross and finished it all there, then in victory rose again) and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Satan also got his licks in by virtue of making Christ suffer)
All that's the beginning of the promise then of the seed of the woman. It would come through the female side of the human race, not from Adam, but from the woman, and we can follow this all the way through scripture. As the red thread of redemption runs from beginning to its end in Christ Jesus. Now if we will go to Genesis chapter 12, and let's look at a portion of scripture that most of us have worn out our Bible, and we call it the Abrahamic Covenant. We maintain that it's one of the most important portions of the whole Old Testament. If we don't understand the Abrahamic Covenant then the rest of the Bible is like a mist. We just can't see it clearly! But once we get an understanding of this covenant, then everything falls into place. Now don't forget the seed of the woman back there in Genesis 3:15. As that same seed is not only Christ's body fore told but is our spiritual seed the size of a mustard seed hidden deep within us. When it is awakened within us by the illumination of the Gospel Light and the Holy Spirit we as a young plant come to newness of life, or are become born from above.
Genesis 12:1
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, (in Genesis 11:31) Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: Remember when God says, "I will" what is that? It's a promise that He's going to do it, and nothing in heaven or earth will ever stop Him. So He says, "I will shew thee a land." Now verse 2.
Genesis 12:2-3
"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: 3. And I will bless them that bless thee, and (I will) curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Now that's a bunch of promises isn't it? That's a truck load of promises that were promised to this one man. Now on the surface it doesn't seem that great, but all of human history since 2000 BC is resting on these promises, and God has kept every one of them. Abraham became a great man. He's still thought of as one of the great men of history. The scriptures uphold him as a great man. God blessed him in his progeny, and God has blessed those who bless Israel. God has cursed those who cursed Israel, and if we think we're stretching the point, then you don't know human history. All we have to do is go back into human history, and every nation that has ever come down hard on the Hebrews have gone down the tube, right on up through our present system of nations. Anyone that has turned against the Nation of Israel goes down the tube whether they like it or not. That's why we've maintained for the past 25 plus years that as long as America remains a friend of Israel then America is going to be in pretty safe straits. But if we ever turn on the Nation of Israel and stab them in the back then America is going to go down the tube just like all the others have.
Now we might say, "What are you talking about?" Well Spain is probably one of the best examples. Now if you know American history, who were the explorers that really covered a good part of North America? The Spaniards. Spain was riding on the crest of national power and empire, and then in 1492, which was a little before some of the great explorers, remember God's wheels turn slowly. But in 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella made the decree that every Hebrew would either be out of Spain, convert to Catholicism, or be dead by such and such a day. So there was a great exodus out of Spain, and it wasn't but a 100 years and what was Spain? Nothing! Just a blimp on history, and so it's always been with every empire that has turned on the Hebrews, down they go, and it all comes back to this covenant promise, that, "He will bless them that bless the Nation of Israel, and He would curse them who curse the Nation of Israel."
But whatever way things go one promise is secure and that is through the man Abraham all of the families of the earth would receive a blessing. And that came about with their Messiah. When Christ came and finished the work of the Cross, He became then a blessing out of the line of Abraham, but a blessing for the whole human race, and that's where we are. Through Jesus came the promised Holy Spirit as the gift to all mankind. Remember when we looked at Romans chapter 11 that He broke of the branches of natural Israel off the vine, and He grafted in the Gentiles? Oh we love that chapter. And when He sat Israel aside for a season, He brought the whole Gentile world into that place of privilege.
Not that we're all saved, but we're brought into that place of privilege where we now have an opportunity for salvation based again on the promise made to Abraham.We all like Israel are placed by God within the tutor or as we've likened it inside a corral at conversion, to receive redemption with the deposit of the Holy Spirit. Its then His assignment as our comforter, teacher, trainer and guide to bring through the wilderness to the gate or the door of crisis, the cross of Christ. He does this by way of revealing Christ to us as we're to learn Christ as He is revealed from Genesis through the four gospels and up to Acts chapter 11, the Old Testament. It is while we're learning Christ in this fashion that The Holy spirit also reveals our undoneness and the utter sinfulness of sin and then the Fathers Will for us all, death to that old mans nature. It is just here that we face the split in the road which Jacob and Israel's wanderings in the wilderness for forty years symbolizes. For this is repeated in Acts with Peter and Paul, Peter being the way of Israel, spiritual blindness, and Paul being the way of revelation and enter into the promised Canaan Land which is Christ by way of the purchasing of the Pearl of greatest price, Christ through death.
Oh it's fascinating when we study this, and the whole human race for the past 1960 + years as Gentiles have been resting and feeding on the fatness of the root of Abraham while Israel has been out there in a dispersion. But the day is coming and we think it is getting close, where God is once again going to shut the door on the Gentile world. He'll break them off from that grafted position, and then Israel will be grafted back in again as Paul says in Romans chapter 11. As it also ties into God's timeline as seen in Psalm 2.
At that time the Gentiles will find themselves again where they were before - without a Messiah and outside the covenant promises. Well we hope to have seen the promises of I will, I will, I will and all the way up through Abraham's life God is constantly promising. Now remember some of these things took years before they were consummated. This is why the man grew impatient and finally succumbed to the temptation to use a slave girl. For after all he couldn't have a nation of people if he didn't have even one son. So that gave rise to the birth of Ishmael. Now before we leave the Book of Genesis come on over to chapter 21:12. We're going to follow this "seed" concept for a little bit. In this chapter Ishmael has reached the age of tormenting little Isaac. Isaac is now about 5 years old, and so Ishmael and his mother Hagar are sent out into the wilderness at God's instructions.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Part LXVII on The Study of Galatians
Galatians 3:13-15
"Christ hath (past tense) redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through (not through Israel as the Old Testament had promised, but through) Jesus Christ; (in other words that finished work of the Cross) that we (as Gentiles) might receive the promise of the Spirit through (not through the Law but) faith. 15. Brethren, (Paul was speaking to Gentile believers up there in central Turkey in Galatia, and Paul says -) I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, (can cancel) or addeth thereto." When he added "or adds thereto" at the end, he is telling us that Nothing can be added to God's plan for our salvation or redemption. And the expression just before this "no man disannuls" though the word is improper the "dis" here has no effect on the word "annul". No mere man can annul what God has put into action or as the second part says change this thing by adding to or taking away from. Now that sounds like double talk in a way doesn't it? But you see what the apostle is really saying is that as he himself is also human, he's a man like anyone else, and he has an understanding that the Law, so far as humanity was concerned, was weak and beggarly. It just couldn't get the job done, and that sometimes shocks people. We ordinarily think of the Law from the other side, and that is that it was what? Perfect, Holy, Righteous, and that it is. But from mans point of view it was powerless, and all it could do was point the finger of condemnation at mankind. Its requirements were a yoke of heavy bondage which the average Hebrew couldn't bear. All right, but since it's a covenant, and remember a covenant in Scripture is always a one way street. Every covenant in Scripture begins and ends with God, and men can't touch it. They can't enlarge on it, they can't subtract from it, and this is exactly what he is saying. Even though from a mans standpoint it is weak and beggarly - now look at it again in verse 15.
Galatians 3:15
"Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, (and we know it was as it was settled in heaven. So if it be confirmed,) no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto."
Now let us take us back to a scripture. Sometimes things come to mind that we didn't intend to do and this is one of them. Come back with us to II Samuel chapter 7, and here we find the Davids covenant. Now that just simply means that it was a covenant that God made with David concerning his offspring, the Nation of Israel. And let's start with verse 14. Where He's been speaking about the Royal line of the house of David which would lead up to the coming of the King, the Christ, the Messiah. This Royal blood line is going to come down through Solomon on one side, and Nathan on the other. But He's speaking primarily here of Solomon, and the Lord says-
II Samuel 7:14
"I will be his father, and he shall be my son, If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:" Now even though it sounds like He's only addressing Solomon in particular, yet He's looking at the longer view, the whole Nation of Israel. That's who He's really talking to. He would chasten the Nation of Israel by the nations who were their enemies, and the various other ways that God had of chastening His people. Now continue on.
II Samuel 7:15
"But (now the flip side).) my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee." Yes, He's going to chasten them, He's going to deal harshly with them when they come into a place of unbelief, and abject behavior. But in spite of everything that Israel does in opposition to her God, His mercy will never depart from them. Why? Because it's a covenant, and God will never go back on His word, and He has promised that through the line of David coming down through Solomon and Nathan would one day come the King, the Messiah. And it had to happen regardless of what Israel did in the mean time, the covenant stands secure. Now coming back to Galatians chapter 3. Remember there are all kinds of covenants in the Old Testament. It starts with the Abrahamic in Genesis chapter 12, and then the Davids that we just looked at. We have the Palestinian, that promised Israel the land of Palestine. We've got the covenant which contains the Law, and none of those things could Israel or anybody else add to or take away from or ever cancel because it's made and going to end with God. Now let's move on to verse 16.
Galatians 3:16
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, (plural) as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, (that is the Seed of Abraham in this case) which is Christ." Now we'd better chase that down all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, because after all that's what the scripture expects us to do. Even if this is old to you, and it's just review for a lot of us, yet we think that the scriptures demand that we just build line upon line and precept upon precept, and not just wonder what Paul is talking about. Well let's go back and see what he's talking about, because it's all back here. And most of us have grown up with this verse. We think one great old preacher once called this verse "the beginning of the line of scarlet thread in scripture, and now here it is. God says to Satan.
"Christ hath (past tense) redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through (not through Israel as the Old Testament had promised, but through) Jesus Christ; (in other words that finished work of the Cross) that we (as Gentiles) might receive the promise of the Spirit through (not through the Law but) faith. 15. Brethren, (Paul was speaking to Gentile believers up there in central Turkey in Galatia, and Paul says -) I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, (can cancel) or addeth thereto." When he added "or adds thereto" at the end, he is telling us that Nothing can be added to God's plan for our salvation or redemption. And the expression just before this "no man disannuls" though the word is improper the "dis" here has no effect on the word "annul". No mere man can annul what God has put into action or as the second part says change this thing by adding to or taking away from. Now that sounds like double talk in a way doesn't it? But you see what the apostle is really saying is that as he himself is also human, he's a man like anyone else, and he has an understanding that the Law, so far as humanity was concerned, was weak and beggarly. It just couldn't get the job done, and that sometimes shocks people. We ordinarily think of the Law from the other side, and that is that it was what? Perfect, Holy, Righteous, and that it is. But from mans point of view it was powerless, and all it could do was point the finger of condemnation at mankind. Its requirements were a yoke of heavy bondage which the average Hebrew couldn't bear. All right, but since it's a covenant, and remember a covenant in Scripture is always a one way street. Every covenant in Scripture begins and ends with God, and men can't touch it. They can't enlarge on it, they can't subtract from it, and this is exactly what he is saying. Even though from a mans standpoint it is weak and beggarly - now look at it again in verse 15.
Galatians 3:15
"Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, (and we know it was as it was settled in heaven. So if it be confirmed,) no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto."
Now let us take us back to a scripture. Sometimes things come to mind that we didn't intend to do and this is one of them. Come back with us to II Samuel chapter 7, and here we find the Davids covenant. Now that just simply means that it was a covenant that God made with David concerning his offspring, the Nation of Israel. And let's start with verse 14. Where He's been speaking about the Royal line of the house of David which would lead up to the coming of the King, the Christ, the Messiah. This Royal blood line is going to come down through Solomon on one side, and Nathan on the other. But He's speaking primarily here of Solomon, and the Lord says-
II Samuel 7:14
"I will be his father, and he shall be my son, If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:" Now even though it sounds like He's only addressing Solomon in particular, yet He's looking at the longer view, the whole Nation of Israel. That's who He's really talking to. He would chasten the Nation of Israel by the nations who were their enemies, and the various other ways that God had of chastening His people. Now continue on.
II Samuel 7:15
"But (now the flip side).) my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee." Yes, He's going to chasten them, He's going to deal harshly with them when they come into a place of unbelief, and abject behavior. But in spite of everything that Israel does in opposition to her God, His mercy will never depart from them. Why? Because it's a covenant, and God will never go back on His word, and He has promised that through the line of David coming down through Solomon and Nathan would one day come the King, the Messiah. And it had to happen regardless of what Israel did in the mean time, the covenant stands secure. Now coming back to Galatians chapter 3. Remember there are all kinds of covenants in the Old Testament. It starts with the Abrahamic in Genesis chapter 12, and then the Davids that we just looked at. We have the Palestinian, that promised Israel the land of Palestine. We've got the covenant which contains the Law, and none of those things could Israel or anybody else add to or take away from or ever cancel because it's made and going to end with God. Now let's move on to verse 16.
Galatians 3:16
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, (plural) as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, (that is the Seed of Abraham in this case) which is Christ." Now we'd better chase that down all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, because after all that's what the scripture expects us to do. Even if this is old to you, and it's just review for a lot of us, yet we think that the scriptures demand that we just build line upon line and precept upon precept, and not just wonder what Paul is talking about. Well let's go back and see what he's talking about, because it's all back here. And most of us have grown up with this verse. We think one great old preacher once called this verse "the beginning of the line of scarlet thread in scripture, and now here it is. God says to Satan.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Part LXVI on The Study of Galatians
Oh! that's His eternal purpose. Yes, God made a valid offer to
the Nation of Israel. He wasn't playing games with them, those were
valid offers that He made the nation. Even when they could have gone
into the promised land of milk and honey at Kadesh Barnea. God told them
to go in and take the land and I'll drive the Canaanites out with
hornets. The land is laying there ready it was in production, all you
have to do is take it over. I'll drive them out slow so that the weeds
won't take over before you get there. Israel didn't do it. But was it a
valid offer? Absolutely they could have, but what did God know? That
they wouldn't.So it was after Jesus' crucifixion God knew before hand
that Israel would in effect turn its back towards Him again.
So the whole divine purpose of the 40 years of wilderness wondering was all in the divine plan. But it wasn't because God didn't give them a valid offer. And that's what we use as our argument, that when Christ came and presented Himself as the King of Israel it was a valid offer. He came to His own for what purposes? To be their Redeemer, kinsmen, and King! But as a valid offer the Nation of Israel rejected it, and that fulfilled the eternal purposes, and that was, "Salvation to the whole human race, without Israel, without the Law, without the Temple, without proselytizing, it was salvation by faith and faith alone." Glorious? Man we think it's something that we should be more excited about. People get more worked up over a music idol or football or basketball game than they do the things of God and their eternal Life.
You know we're sort of in the middle. We don't go along with wild emotionalism, but we also don't go along with this staid religionism either. If anybody has a reason to be happy and joyful we think it's the believer. But on the other hand we have to do that which is in order. Now back to Galatians chapter 3, and let's look at verse 14 again. We hope that we're making a difference. Now remember Christ became a curse, hung on a stake, as it were, like Deuteronomy's wayward rebel son. All of that for this.
Galatians 3:14
"That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; (and for what purpose?) that we (as Gentiles) might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." So all the purposes of God are coming to fruition in this glorious Age of Grace. In this age God is giving of His Spirit to all who come to conversion through repentance as promised in Isaiah. Not only do we not have to keep the Mosaic Law, but as a result of our salvation experience, God gives us something 10,000 times better than the Ten Commandments and what is it? The Holy Spirit, God's greatest Gift! The Holy Spirit becomes our guideline, not the Ten Commandments. So when we say we're not under the Law, that doesn't mean that you chuck the fact that it's wrong to kill and steal, because the Holy Spirit is going to show us that, and that's the whole difference ballgame. In fact come back for a moment to Romans chapter 7, and this says it so beautifully.
Romans chapter 7:6
"But now (Paul lays it out how it has been, and then he uses the flip side, but now) we are delivered from the law, (as Grace Age receivers) that being dead (spiritually separated from God) wherein we were held (now this is a two edged sword because one was under the yoke of religion in the force of the Law and the other was also religion under Satan's rule); that we should serve in newness of spirit, (What's the newness of the spirit? The Holy Spirit that guides and directs us, and remember the Holy Spirit never instructs someone to do something that is contrary to God's Law or His divine Will. The Holy Spirit will never tell someone to go commit adultery, or steal, or kill, or covet, or do anything wrong) and not in the oldness of the letter." The oldness of the letter is the Law. We're no longer under the Law, but rather Grace, and the Holy Spirit takes the place of the Law. With His aid we become partakers of all the requirements of God's divine and Holy Law. Now back to our text in Galatians.
Galatians 3:14a
"That the blessing of Abraham..." Has there ever been a man more blessed than Abraham? We doubt it, unless it would be the Apostle Paul, but you see the Apostle Paul didn't get through it as easy as Abraham did. Paul suffered so much just like the scriptures says he would. He suffered so, for the sake of the Gospel to get it out to the ends of the Roman Empire. What a lesson, when we see all the immoral remains of that Roman Empire, and to think that that man was in the midst of it constantly, and yet never letting it turn his mind aside, he just preached the Gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit. We're also required to suffer as this is the Way of Christ. This is quite a revelation believe it. Now finishing verse 14.
Galatians 3:14
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit (how?) through faith." Without any works of the Law, that's a Gift of God that was all part and parcel of that whole plan of redemption. That yes, we have eternal salvation, but we also have the indwelling Holy Spirit and the sufferings required. For what purpose? For the development of our Obedience.
So the whole divine purpose of the 40 years of wilderness wondering was all in the divine plan. But it wasn't because God didn't give them a valid offer. And that's what we use as our argument, that when Christ came and presented Himself as the King of Israel it was a valid offer. He came to His own for what purposes? To be their Redeemer, kinsmen, and King! But as a valid offer the Nation of Israel rejected it, and that fulfilled the eternal purposes, and that was, "Salvation to the whole human race, without Israel, without the Law, without the Temple, without proselytizing, it was salvation by faith and faith alone." Glorious? Man we think it's something that we should be more excited about. People get more worked up over a music idol or football or basketball game than they do the things of God and their eternal Life.
You know we're sort of in the middle. We don't go along with wild emotionalism, but we also don't go along with this staid religionism either. If anybody has a reason to be happy and joyful we think it's the believer. But on the other hand we have to do that which is in order. Now back to Galatians chapter 3, and let's look at verse 14 again. We hope that we're making a difference. Now remember Christ became a curse, hung on a stake, as it were, like Deuteronomy's wayward rebel son. All of that for this.
Galatians 3:14
"That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; (and for what purpose?) that we (as Gentiles) might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." So all the purposes of God are coming to fruition in this glorious Age of Grace. In this age God is giving of His Spirit to all who come to conversion through repentance as promised in Isaiah. Not only do we not have to keep the Mosaic Law, but as a result of our salvation experience, God gives us something 10,000 times better than the Ten Commandments and what is it? The Holy Spirit, God's greatest Gift! The Holy Spirit becomes our guideline, not the Ten Commandments. So when we say we're not under the Law, that doesn't mean that you chuck the fact that it's wrong to kill and steal, because the Holy Spirit is going to show us that, and that's the whole difference ballgame. In fact come back for a moment to Romans chapter 7, and this says it so beautifully.
Romans chapter 7:6
"But now (Paul lays it out how it has been, and then he uses the flip side, but now) we are delivered from the law, (as Grace Age receivers) that being dead (spiritually separated from God) wherein we were held (now this is a two edged sword because one was under the yoke of religion in the force of the Law and the other was also religion under Satan's rule); that we should serve in newness of spirit, (What's the newness of the spirit? The Holy Spirit that guides and directs us, and remember the Holy Spirit never instructs someone to do something that is contrary to God's Law or His divine Will. The Holy Spirit will never tell someone to go commit adultery, or steal, or kill, or covet, or do anything wrong) and not in the oldness of the letter." The oldness of the letter is the Law. We're no longer under the Law, but rather Grace, and the Holy Spirit takes the place of the Law. With His aid we become partakers of all the requirements of God's divine and Holy Law. Now back to our text in Galatians.
Galatians 3:14a
"That the blessing of Abraham..." Has there ever been a man more blessed than Abraham? We doubt it, unless it would be the Apostle Paul, but you see the Apostle Paul didn't get through it as easy as Abraham did. Paul suffered so much just like the scriptures says he would. He suffered so, for the sake of the Gospel to get it out to the ends of the Roman Empire. What a lesson, when we see all the immoral remains of that Roman Empire, and to think that that man was in the midst of it constantly, and yet never letting it turn his mind aside, he just preached the Gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit. We're also required to suffer as this is the Way of Christ. This is quite a revelation believe it. Now finishing verse 14.
Galatians 3:14
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit (how?) through faith." Without any works of the Law, that's a Gift of God that was all part and parcel of that whole plan of redemption. That yes, we have eternal salvation, but we also have the indwelling Holy Spirit and the sufferings required. For what purpose? For the development of our Obedience.
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