Acts 2:22-23
"Ye men of Israel, hear these words;
(did those Hebrews know their Old Testament? Of course they did! They
were taught in the whole idea of the Law and the Old Testament prophets
and so forth. Even though they were in rank unbelief, yet they knew
these things from the Old Testament) Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by (through) him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, (Jesus of Nazareth) being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:"
You know what he could have also said? "And he has reserved you a place. He has adoption waiting for you." But Peter didn't know that.
But God did. God had the foreknowledge of everything from eternity past
up until the time that it is [was] finally consummated (in Christ) and
will continue until the end of time. Nothing in all of God's workings
were unknown to that predetermined counsel of God back there in eternity
past. The Triune (Elohim) God saw everything and that's beyond our
human comprehension. He saw it all! He knew back in eternity past that
we would be sitting here. There is nothing beyond His knowledge and He
knows exactly what's ahead of us, even though we don't. Now Peter said
“by wicked hands” who's hands were wicked? Jesus used this word to
describe the Hebrews and more so of their Priest's, He was intolerant of
them. Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 13 where he uses
Deuteronomy 13:5 which says:
“And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD (Yah-Yehova)
your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you
out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the
LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away
from the midst of thee.” So who
has turned the church into what it is now in our time, the false
prophets and dreamers because they have spoken against the Lord, the
very man or woman who holds the pulpit. Just as the priests of Israel
had done, they are repeating their actions. So then those who choose to
remain in that position are also counted as wicked.
Let's look at verses 4 & 5 again -
Galatians 4:4b-5
"...God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
He
went through that whole finished work of the Cross, arose from the
dead, appeared to the eleven for forty days, ascended back to Glory and
then revealed to this next great man in human history, the Apostle Paul,
or Saul of Tarsus, all of these doctrines of Grace. The mysteries which
God held close to His breast. And until Paul comes they are unknown.
That's why he refers constantly to the mysteries, the secrets that were
kept in the mind of God. We're so thrilled that people are seeing this,
by the hundreds. People are finally understanding that it's only
through the revelations to this apostle that we now understand that
eternal purpose, Will of God in the crucifixion and in calling out that
body of Gentiles, which we call the Church. Not under the Law, but under
Grace.
Here in this verse he's going to come back to show these
Galatians, as well as ourselves, the opportunity that we have as
believers. Now he's not talking about salvation, but rather our position
after salvation, and what a great thing it is to enjoy these doctrinal
truths even short of glory itself. We know we've said so often that
salvation isn't just a fire escape, but most people think of it as such.
They want to get saved so that they won't go to Hell. Well that's all
part of it, but that's not the most important part. The most important
part is, “God”. God is with us here and now, and He can help us avoid
all the pitfalls of life.
It's because
people evidently never understood that the answer to all of life's
dilemmas are right here in this Book. It's all in here, and all we have
to do is be obedient to the things of God, His Will, and we'll avoid
most of those. We won't say we'll avoid them all because after all we're
flesh and human, but we can avoid so much if we just understand our
position as believers. We're called to suffer but Christ sees us through
each trail to aid or help build of faith by showing His faithfulness
throughout the trails. And as the Lord said in His earthly ministry that
He came to give us Life and so that we might have it more abundantly.
And that holds, this is still His whole concept that we can have Eternal
Life, but even in the physical we can have it more abundantly. The
“abundantly” does not mean as many are told and assume that it means
prosperity or wealth or even health in abundance, though with the power
of an Endless Life in operation within us this could be possible, if God
so chooses.
Galatians 4:6
"And because ye are sons,
(sons of whom? Well sons of God - we're now the born ones as a result
of our passing through redemption and our entering the workings of
salvation. And since we're sons) God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
When
it comes to the spiritual, God is the One who precipitates all the
action. We don't! We know of a person who recently had a chance to visit
with an Orthodox Jew and it was a thrilling experience (with his black
robed clothes, steeped in the Law of Moses). My they just had a royal
time. He said, “I'll never forget that I brought him up in his memory to
when Israel stood on the shores of the Red Sea, and I asked him how
much could those Israelites do? Well he just sort of looked blank. I
said, "They did nothing! The Egyptian army was behind them, mountains on
the right, obstacles on the left, and the Red Sea in front of them. And
did God say, "Well hurry up and do something?" No. He didn't even tell
them to get down and go through some rituals and gyrations and all of
this, but rather all He told them was what? "Stand still, don't do anything."”
Just
wait for the power of God. And what happened? The Red Sea opened up,
and He led them through on dry ground. You see it's the same way today.
People try to do this and that, they work, and they attempt to please
God, and they try to keep the commandments, and statues and ordinances
and they want to do, do, do, but God keeps saying, "Stand still." Don't
do anything but believe this Gospel for your salvation, that it's all
been done for you. So here again because of our position after believing
faith has come to us, God is the One who precipitates the action. He
just wants us to sit under Him and Listen to receive His illumination of
revelation, until we're accepted and trusted. Then we'll be like Christ
or Paul was in perfect obedience to the leading and actions shown and
said or told us to do. And this all is done not by our works but by His
working in us through His Son the only begotten one. Have you become a
begotten son, yet? Sad to say not many have, though there are many
pretenders out there.
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