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Who are you? - sermon notes
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God, the us of Genesis 1:26, is composed of three parts;
God the Father, the seat of will and self-identity, the Spirit of God or the Holy
Ghost, the very mind of God, and the visible image of God, His appearance in
physical form, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word, capital W, by which all things
were created.
These are things I’ve discussed repeatedly in my
comments to you on Genesis. God the Father, as the soul of God, is the seat of
will and self-identity.
Psalm
11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but
the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
The Holy Ghost is the very mind of God. Here are
passages where spirit and mind are linked. The Spirit is the mind
and heart of God just as the spirit of man includes the heart, reason,
emotions, intellect, and talents. For contexts where
the Spirit of God or the spirit of man can be synonymous with mind please see
the following;
Romans
8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind
of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Ephesians
4:23 And be renewed in the spirit
of your mind;
Philippians
1:27 Only let your conversation be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be
absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith
of the gospel;
2Timothy
1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit
of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Then Christ, the body of God, the image of God.
The
Lord Jesus Christ, as any reading of John will attest to, is the Word. He is
the physical image of God, the body of God, if you will, so we have three parts
of one God; soul, body, and spirit.
Colossians
1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:…2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily.
Hebrews
1:3 Who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
John
14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;
and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Three
parts to one God with one will, not three individual persons with separate
wills.
Deuteronomy
6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is
one LORD:
John
10:30 I and my Father are one.
Christ is the appearance of God; the angel of the
Lord, His presence.
Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and
the angel of his presence saved
them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and
carried them all the days of old.
Galatians 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye
despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Who led the Hebrews out of Egypt.
Judges 2:1 ¶ And an
angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go
up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your
fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
We
are created in such a manner, having a body, a soul, and a spirit.
1Thessalonians
5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Although our three parts cannot operate
independently. If they are separated our physical bodies would die.
God
came to earth in a physical body like our own. We look like God.
Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he
saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me:
It was the incarnation of God as a man, fully God
and fully man, the Son (capital S) of God and the Son of man, that elevated
human dignity in the mind, the spirit, of Western Civilization.
Luke 22:69 Hereafter shall
the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. 70 Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of
God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am.
The dignity of man, the preeminence of man, the
sanctity of human life, is something so profound, so unusual in human history,
so important, and yet we are giving it up without a fight.
Let
me explain.
Islamic, Muslim scholars, of the Middle Ages were
equal to the European. They had the Greek philosophical texts and the Old
Testament of our Bible readily available to study and they did. But, they
didn’t develop a notion of human dignity as a part of Islamic culture.
By rejecting the incarnation of Christ they could
not accept that God would violate His glory, His honor, His dignity by becoming
a lowly human being. It was impossible. I read one source where they said the
question was asked rhetorically and mockingly by Muslim scholars, “Could God
then also become a dog?”
The Greeks and the Muslims put a limit on God, what
He could and what He couldn’t do. The idea that God loved mankind enough to die
for them was not something that either philosophy could entertain in their
head. The implication that human beings were unique in God’s plan of creation
was unacceptable.
We have similar thinking today in the atheistic,
and highly theoretical scientist like Nobel prize winner Fred Hoyle, who, in
his 1975 textbook on Cosmology admits that the data shows us as being likely in
the center of the universe but since he can’t accept that he makes a totally
unproveable assertion that everywhere then must look like the center and he
admits that that conclusion is based on intellectual grounds not on
observation.
However, [refers
to a diagram of the universe] would demand a special relation of our own galaxy
to the universe, since in this figure we have taken our galaxy to be located in
the center of a nonuniform distribution of galaxies. It hardly seems plausible
that our galaxy would be in any such privileged position. So we answer the
above question [would anywhere appear to be the center making the universe
acentric?] affirmatively on intellectual grounds rather than because such an
answer is determined by observation.[1]
The spirit of this age is to remove man from his
place and his responsibility to God by making him no more than a beast living
in a meaningless backwater of the universe that only appears to be the center. Man
to them is a random accident, not a special creation of a God who they do not
believe even exists but a pointless event in space-time without any purpose.
Now, let me qualify what I’m saying here. I
understand that God did not make the universe for us.
Revelation
4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy
pleasure they are and were created.
I
understand that He is doing things on the earth and in space we know nothing
about, and can only imagine.
Job 38:25 ¶ Who hath
divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning
of thunder; 26 To cause it to rain on
the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; 27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and
to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?... 31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of
Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 32
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide
Arcturus with his sons?33 Knowest thou
the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
I also know
that the earth, all of the beasts that dwell there, and everything that exists
is His own personal property over which we are stewards who will be held
accountable.
Psalm 24:1 «A Psalm of
David.» The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they
that dwell therein.
Psalm 89:11 The heavens are
thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou
hast founded them.
Psalm 50:10 For every beast
of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
Revelation 11:18 And the
nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they
should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets,
and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest
destroy them which destroy the earth.
I know that
God has used animals, innocent and incapable of showing Him contempt, to
picture Jesus in the Old Testament sacrifices and that their prototypes around
the throne bear witness to His glory.
Revelation 4:6 And before
the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the
throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and
behind.
7 And the first beast was
like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face
as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.8 ¶ And the four beasts had each of them six
wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and
night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is
to come. 9 And when those beasts give
glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever
and ever,
But man, who could have had his face slapped on any
creature on earth, stands upright and walks like God, the Lord Jesus Christ in
bodily form.
We are God’s representatives to the beasts, to our
children, to each other. We are called to act in such a way, to carry ourselves
in such a manner, and to testify by our very existence in a loving, benevolent
but Holy God of the universe.
Let me tell you how I came to Christ. I grew up in
a family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. My great-grandfather was a Baptist
of the 19th century. Postmillennial, believing that we Christians
were making the world a better place that we would hand over to, I guess, a
grateful Jesus Christ at His return. He introduced the Baptist Church to
Princess Anne, Maryland, in Somerset County. The newspaper said he was
responsible for the baptizing of a thousand people in the Manokin River and was
instrumental in starting the Baptist Church there. That’s how I remember what I
was told and what I saw in the old newspaper a cousin showed me.
But postmillennialism is a dead end. Man, even
Christians, are not making a more Godly world and we are not creating God’s
kingdom on earth and postmillennialism died out among most Baptists before
World War Two, which sort of put the last nail in the coffin of “we’re making
the world a better place.”
The truth is that we await Christ’s return to
straighten out this mess that man has mostly made all by himself with God’s
permissive will in place.
I was a rebellious hellion, in trouble with the law
and man, and prone to virtually every evil I could think of that didn’t make me
sick and some that did.
My parents’ religion was sort of bland. We had
books by atheists, Catholic crucifixes, and other generic religious mementos in
the homes of my youth.
I partied and did stupidly bad things in my youth
until one day I was in deep trouble. I had mocked Christians repeatedly and
although I had Christian friends their faith did not merit my respect. But, in
the end they were the only ones who stood by me and spoke on my behalf as my
good-time friends ran for the hills at the first sign of trouble.
I then began to pay attention. The first thing I
noticed was the simple faith of those people. No matter what happened to them
they trusted God for the outcome. They accepted His will. They wanted to please
God.
They were regular people, policemen, former
criminals, businessmen and women, military persons, factory workers,
salespeople, from all walks of life and they had something I did not. They
trusted in One I did not know. Oh, I had gone to church as a child. I knew
ABOUT God and Christ but did not know them.
Each of these people in turn gave me something,
showed me something, faith in God and the dignity of a man or woman in Christ.
I prayed five times a day, read the Good News Bible twice, and contemplated
what the disaster my life had become meant.
It was then that I met my wife to be, Beth. One
day, Wednesday, March 19, 1986, in the evening she asked me, was there any
reason I could think of why I should not pray to receive Christ. I thought
about all of the people I had met in horrible circumstances and their faith, of
this woman who had been abused and mistreated by her former preacher husband
and had tremendous burdens in her life and yet had unstoppable faith in God’s
love and mercy. All of my reasons for refusing Christ were gone, mowed down by
the Holy Spirit working through people of simple faith.
I was not saved by a gospel tract pushed into my
hand on a busy street or by someone standing on a street corner screaming at me
as I passed by. I was saved by the dignity of, the simple and unvarnished faith
of, common ordinary Christians.
It was not long after I was saved that I looked
around and saw the world as it really was. Modern man had reduced themselves to
the low level the beasts occupied in men’s minds. What I saw was not so much
people reaching out to God but crawling on their hands and knees in filth and
in the darkness. It all seemed to be about a lack of understanding of who we
are.
It seemed to begin a long time ago, maybe even
right after our founding as a Constitutional Republic. Critics who lived during
that time complained about the way the father’s place of reverence and respect
in the family was deteriorating not only in the family but in art. Some
lamented that Christianity was on such a decline and so many people had so much
contempt for the faith that they thought that the religion would not last
another generation things were so bad.
As our society became more and more diverse with
different cultures and religions pouring into the country standards of behavior
became more relaxed and traditional ideals weren’t upheld. As the historical
theme of Emancipation continued to grow as it had since the time of Queen
Elizabeth I more and more people were vocal who believed things about
themselves and their place in the world that went against all that people of an
earlier time thought right or wrong.
With technology, movies, popular music, and an
increase in the entertainment value of culture people who held to a different
standard of right and wrong began to influence society in a very negative way.
The advent of the automobile made it possible for
couples to spend a great deal of time unchaperoned and alone. This lead to an
increase in unwanted pregnancies and backalley abortions but definitely an
easier going morality for all.
With each war we participated in the standards of
behavior and morality suffered. Doughboys returning home from France after
World War One wanted their wives and girlfriends to look like the pretty
made-up French girls they had enjoyed. Women began slathering on make-up to
appear younger and more vivacious and the insult, “she looks like a painted
city woman,” went away.
World War Two say a great many women working in
defense industries only to be ousted when the men came home but not completely
willing to give up the financial independence they had during the war.
Society was changing faster and faster, become
looser with each passing decade and each war.
Music went from elevating the spirt and glorifying
God as in Bach and Handel to uplifting the soul as in Beethoven all the way
downhill to glorifying the flesh as in Elvis Presley.
We had the counterculture movement of the 1960s,
the drug culture, generations of broken families, and then no families at all.
The same percentage of children placed in orphanages in 1900 were stuck in
single parent homes in 1990 with less of the basics of life and supervision
than they would have had in the orphanages.
I know that what I’m saying is highly subjective
and is my opinion but I do have a point I promise.
Take
such a thing as abortion for instance. Women have become so degraded that is
not unusual for a young woman to have had multiple sexual partners before she
is married if she even bothers getting married. And scientists tell us that
when you have sex with someone that medically speaking you are having sex with
everyone they’ve had sex with.
Abortion has gone from a painful choice shared by a
mother, father, and doctor as they agonize over her health and survival if she
carries a child to birth to where its only up to the woman and a form of birth
control. 60 million plus unborn babies, an inordinately large part of them
African-Americans, have been butchered as a result.
Human beings have become nothing but livestock, an
intelligent ape, a non-verbal event in space-time to be here briefly to enjoy a
fleeting existence and then gone never to be heard from again. Speaking of
enjoyment society in general, even Christians, will argue like a pagan
Epicurean philosopher and insist that the greatest good in life should be about
being happy, not serving God, not doing right, but BEING HAPPY.
This is not who we were created to be. I’m not
saying that all social change was wrong or that we shouldn’t have loosened up
on some of our uptight and non-scriptural rules and regulations that oppressed
our physically and politically weaker members of society. I’m not lamenting
that all change I mentioned was bad. What I’m saying is that in the process of
things in the culture of the West we have, in pursuing ideas over the centuries
like Equality and Emancipation and fair and decent treatment for all we’ve
thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
We, and Christians are guilty of this, have reduced
ourselves to a level lower than a beast. We’ve had several generations,
including your own, of children taught that they were nothing more than
intelligent animals driven by instinct with urges they cannot control and
probably shouldn’t try to control.
I’ve read a report that said there are 300 serial
killers operating in this country. The amazing thing is not that there are 300
of them but that there aren’t many more as after all we are just a beast. Only
the survival of the strongest animal matters, right?
I’ve read that 1 out of every 25 people is a
sociopath capable of committing great wrongs to others without empathy. I’m
surprised there aren’t many more as after all we are nothing more than a brute
beast. Survival of the fittest and the most clever and most ruthless beast is
the rule of evolutionary biology, right?
Think of the school shootings from Columbine on and
think of the huge numbers of teens that commit suicide every year. Be amazed
that there aren’t many, many more than there are because we are nothing more
than biological machines who have no control over our baser nature.
So, what is to be our position when we talk to the
world? What do we know that they don’t? What does the Bible teach us? What is
man’s place in the universe, before God, and before his or her fellow men and
women?
First,
we have been given responsibility over all created things within our reach.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
That is authority and stewardship not license to
destroy and be cruel and without compassion.
Secondly, as Genesis 1:26 says, we are made in
God’s image, in His likeness. We look like God as Christ Himself came to us as
a man, as one of us.
2Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Third, we, not a chimpanzee or a jellyfish, rock or tree, have a
responsibility given to us to serve God with our body, spirit and mind.
Romans 12:1 ¶ I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among
you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think
soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
The point is that you are a
special creation of God. You were created for a purpose. Your life is
important and not just to your loved ones but to God Himself. Everything in
your life, every joy and sorrow, every circumstance even your death has a
meaning, most of which
you
will never know in this life.
Government run schools are teaching
your children and grandchildren, indeed they tried to teach you, that we are
nothing more than highly evolved animals and that our existence only has
purpose that we give it and that there is no greater will than human will. You
cannot accept this, be acquiescent to it, and be a Christian.
The culture is teaching your
children and grandchildren and, indeed it tried to teach you, that your
happiness is the greatest good, that whatever you want to do is okay because
you want to do it and for no other reason as long as it doesn’t get you in
trouble with the law of the land. The culture you live in rejects shame,
dishonor, guilt, and fearing to do things that bring contempt on the cause of
Christ as being completely irrelevant.
We must stand up as men and women in
Christ and get out of the muck and mire of this world, standing on our two feet
and looking to Heaven for our value and purposes in a universe where not one
molecule exists without a reason. Mankind is precious in God’s eyes and we
cannot acknowledge His sacrifice for our sin while at the same time viewing
ourselves as a random accident of a causeless universe.
I want to close with these verses for you to
contemplate today.
Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right
well.
Acts 17:24 God that made
the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing,
seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they
might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his
offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we
are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked
at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained;
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from
the dead.
[1] Fred Hoyle, Astronomy and Cosmology: A Modern Course (San
Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1975), 87.
Sunday, June 20, 2021
Romans, chapter 14, comments: being sensitive to the convictions and weaknesses of other Christians
Romans 14:1 ¶ Him that is
weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2 For one believeth that he may eat all things:
another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3
Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him
which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. 4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s
servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up:
for God is able to make him stand. 5 One
man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it
unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not
regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks;
and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
7 For none of us liveth to himself, and
no man dieth to himself. 8 For whether
we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord:
whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose,
and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. 10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why
dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. 11 For it is written, As
I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess to God. 12 So then every one of
us shall give account of himself to God. 13
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather,
that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s
way. 14 I know, and am persuaded by the
Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that
esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy
meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom
Christ died. 16 Let not then your good
be evil spoken of: 17 For the kingdom of
God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost. 18 For he that in these things
serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. 19 Let us therefore follow after the things
which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. 20 For meat destroy not the work of God. All
things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth
with offence. 21 It is good
neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy
brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself
before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which
he alloweth. 23 And he that doubteth is
damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is
not of faith is sin.
Here, Paul foresees the interminable arguments that Christians
will have over their own convictions. It is likely that early Jewish Christians
wanted to hold onto some of the dietary restrictions of the Law as some
Christians do today, to create a sense of spiritual superiority and
separateness from others in the faith. These people who put restrictions on
their diet, not for health purposes but for purposes of taking a stand on their
faith, are referred to as weak. Remember what Christ showed Peter in Acts?
Acts 10:9 ¶ On the morrow,
as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon
the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10
And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made
ready, he fell into a trance, 11 And saw
heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great
sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts
of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
13 And there came a voice to him, Rise,
Peter; kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said,
Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is
common or unclean. 15 And
the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that
call not thou common. 16 This was done
thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Christians are under no religious dietary restrictions except for
one. See Acts 15 that we are not supposed to drink blood. This is forbidden
before the Law, during the Law, and after the Law is in force.
To mankind after the Flood;
Genesis 9:4 But flesh with
the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
To the Israelite;
Leviticus 3:17 It shall be
a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye
eat neither fat nor blood.
However, that being said, we are not to rub our convictions in
another Christian’s face. If you have a guest who objects to eating pork why
would you deliberately serve pork to them? What kind of a Christian would you
be if you did that?
You might think that having a glass of wine once in a while is
okay but if you have a brother or sister over to your house and you offer them
wine or drink it in front of them knowing that they believe that all alcohol
must be abstained from then you are being quite a jerk.
Paul shows a Christian to be concerned not only about their own
rights and privileges but about the sensitivities of others. A Christian who
has the attitude that I do or say what I want and you’all just need to get over
it is hardly a Christian. He or she is more like an ill-mannered child, a
bully, or just an awful person. Paul’s point of view is that we must remember
that the kingdom of God is more than just what we can do or can’t do in this
flesh that is pleasing to God. It is righteousness, peace with God, and joy in
God’s Holy Ghost. It is not about our noses up arrogance.
Paul here explains that we should not try to force another to go
against their convictions as if they do eat or drink and do not believe they
should they are then sinning by their own violation of their conviction. We are
not to be a part of that for any reason. I would say if someone is really weird
in their convictions and you cannot get them to see in the Bible their error
then you probably shouldn’t fellowship with them.
I convinced a family member from the Bible why they should not
drink and they agreed with me but I failed in convincing them that gambling of
any kind was forbidden so I lost one and won one. In any event, the family
member knows not to gamble around me or to invite me to a card game. I know he
wouldn’t do either.
Deuteronomy, chapter 29, brief comments
Deuteronomy 29:1 ¶ These are
the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the
children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with
them in Horeb. 2 And Moses called unto
all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your
eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all
his land; 3 The great temptations which
thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: 4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to
perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. 5 And I have led you forty years in the
wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen
old upon thy foot. 6 Ye have not eaten
bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am
the LORD your God. 7 And when ye came
unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out
against us unto battle, and we smote them: 8
And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the
Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh. 9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant,
and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
In verse 1 we have underscored the reason for the name of this
book as the second giving of the Law or literally translated, “second law.”
The Israelites, because of their rebellious spirits, were not
given the blessing of a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear
God’s commands. In spite of the miracles God showed them including preserving
them for forty years in the wilderness, they just didn’t get it. He is giving
them another chance, though, and ordering them to obey His words so that they
may prosper in the land promised to them.
Deuteronomy 29:10 ¶ Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, 11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: 12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: 13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; 15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: 16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; 17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) 18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: 20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: 22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it; 23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: 24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: 26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: 27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day. 29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Wow! The greatest to the least powerful and even those who were
not present at this announcement will be held accountable for failing to obey
God’s Law.
Clearly, though, Israel was only allowed to go so far in their
apostasy. They were not sent back to Egypt on ships nor was Israel paved over
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now, look at verse 18 and beyond and understand the meaning of
this passage;
Hebrews 12:15 Looking
diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane
person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
And this one;
Acts 8:23 For I perceive
that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
This regards those people who self-righteously oppose God in their
profaneness against Him.
Verse 29 is an important consideration. To expand on this there
are a lot of things the Bible does not talk about and a lot of things we are
not given to know in this life. The Bible is basically the revelation of God’s
ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself and doesn’t answer a lot of
questions we might ask. However, as in the book of Job we are to trust God that
He has it under control and will reveal to us what we need to know in due time.
It is very disconcerting to an American Christian who wants to know everything
right now.
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Friday, June 18, 2021
Monday, June 14, 2021
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Sunday School at Lake Marburg Baptist Church this morning; Acts 2:5--41
Acts 2:5 ¶ And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
Every
nation under heaven does not mean that every nation on earth was represented but that
a wide variety of nations where Jews lived had representatives there. There was
no distinction with regard to where Jews dwelt as we must remember that words
like every and all in English can be without distinction or the more strict
without exception. For instance,
1Timothy
2:4 Who will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
…cannot mean all without exception or you can toss out free will
and include universal salvation as a doctrine. Of course, this would contradict
almost every other verse in the Bible on the subject of salvation. This is
clearly all without distinction. Salvation is open to all people. It is God’s wish
that all men be saved although they will not be because of their own choices.
We get the word nation here
from the Greek ethnos from which we get our modern ethnicity or ethnic which
denotes people-groups as opposed to what we think when we see nation, as modern
nation-states. There are different places represented here whose people speak
various languages, all having in common that they were Jews, perhaps by blood
or by conversion. These are native speakers, born in the places mentioned. Proselytes, converts to Judaism, called
by some commentators of the Jews, new
creatures, are mentioned elsewhere.
Matthew
23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye
make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Acts
6:5 And the saying pleased the whole
multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,
and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:
Acts
13:43 Now when the congregation was
broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them,
persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
As a note of interest, notice how the Holy Spirit appropriates the
Jewish reference to the convert as a new
creature.
2Corinthians
5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
Galatians
6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
These Jews and proselytes came from the area of present-day Iran
and Iraq, Egypt and North Africa, and in the area of modern-day Turkey. What tongues are is made very clear here by
their relationship to the languages spoken.
The mocking in verse 13 is based on the fact that the term new wine is defined based on the
context. In the following it would be newly pressed juice;
Isaiah
65:8 Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one saith, Destroy it not;
for a blessing is in it: so
will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
Remembering that in the specific context of Joseph’s pharaoh it
was indeed that, squeezed by a trusted servant’s hand into the pharaoh’s cup.
Genesis
40:11 And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand: and I took the
grapes, and pressed them into
Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.
However, in other contexts new
wine is intoxicating and not just freshly squeezed grape juice.
Hosea
4:11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
Zechariah
9:17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the
young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
And so, new wine here is
in a mocking suggestion that the disciples are drunk which Peter will then deny
saying it is only 9am, the third hour of the day, a bit early for a normal
person to be making merry with wine.
Acts 2:14
¶ But Peter, standing up with the
eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye
that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
15 For these are not drunken, as ye
suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the
prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to
pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh:
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I
will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and
signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
21 And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be
holden of it. 25 For David speaketh
concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right
hand, that I should not be moved: 26
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my
flesh shall rest in hope: 27 Because
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption. 28 Thou hast made known
to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
29 Men and brethren, let me
freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried,
and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30
Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath
to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He
seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof
we all
are witnesses. 33 Therefore being by the
right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the
Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. 34 For David is not ascended into the heavens:
but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel
know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ.
Peter quotes the prophet Joel as the prediction of what just
happened. He is, of course, speaking in Hebrew, translated into Greek, then
into English for us at least. Scholars like H.C. Hoskier noted that manuscripts
were translated from one language into another and then back again often. The book of Joel clearly speaks to the end
times. Peter and the believing Jews would have been reading the context of Joel
and expecting, once again, the restoration of Israel’s former glory and its
triumph over its enemies, a recurring theme, hope, and expectation to be
imminent.
Joel
2:28 ¶ And it shall come to pass
afterward, that I will pour out
my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in
the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name
of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be
deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall
call.
Peter preaches about Jesus and in verse 25 he quotes David;
Psalm
16:8 ¶ I have set the LORD always before
me: because he is at my right
hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy
presence is fulness of joy; at
thy right
hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Jesus had previously spoken about this Psalm.
Psalm 110:1 ¶ « A Psalm of David. » The LORD said
unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy
footstool.
Matthew
22:41 ¶ While the Pharisees were
gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42
Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in
spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The
LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool?45 If David then call him
Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man
was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
The repentant sinner being saved by calling on the Lord in verse
21 will be contrasted against God’s calling of a person to salvation in the
next passage in verse 39. See what Paul
says about salvation.
Romans
10:8 The word is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. 11
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed.
12 ¶
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek [Paul
calls Gentiles Greeks as that is the dominant culture]: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.
In verse 34 Peter says that David did not ascend into the heavens
as Christ did. Christ is the Messiah, David’s Lord. So, with Jesus as the son
of David (see Matthew 1:1), the descendant of David, He is also David’s Lord as
per Jehovah, LORD God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah, the Christ
(see John 4:25, 26), the Word by which all things were created (see John 1:1-18),
and the Saviour of the world (1John 4:14), the true God (1John 5:20), the
visible, physical appearance of the invisible God the Father (Hebrews 1:3; John
14:9), who in which abides all power and authority in the universe.
Matthew
28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth.
Verse 36 and the verse in Matthew 28 I just quoted bring up
important points about Biblical interpretation. Some theologians have insisted
that Jesus was not made the Son of God until He was baptized by God and, in
fact, verse 36 says that God hath made
that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Does being
made something or being given something mean in our strict usage something you
weren’t before or didn’t have before? Does this indicate that Jesus was not the
Christ before God made Him so or did
not have all power before it was given to
Him?
For something to be given, granted, or bestowed as a gift does not
by necessity mean in a specific moment in time. In the same way for someone to
be made someone can have the same meaning. It can refer to something one has
always had or always been. As a result I put forward that this made and this given are from the beginning, announced to the world at a specific
time, implying no sudden granting or bestowal or change of condition but a
declaration of something that has always been so. As an example I can be the
heir of my father’s fortune and that status may have always been so even if I
do not receive the inheritance until my father dies or I come of age. Our Lord
had to be born into the flesh as a man, a human being, to affirm His status as
the Saviour of the world, God walking in the flesh on earth.
Isaiah
43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have
chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God
formed, neither shall there be after me. 11
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
As He told Philip in John 14:9 to have seen Him is to have seen
the Father and as Paul said in Hebrews 1:3 Jesus is the appearance of God. Jesus
is that Messiah spoken of in Daniel 9:25, 26. He came into this world in a body
of flesh and assumed the form of a man, and was and is fully God and fully man,
the bridge between God and man.
Hebrew
10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou
prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
pleasure. 7 ¶ Then said I, Lo, I come
(in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering
and burnt offerings and offering
for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Peter is accusing the Jews, his own people, of crucifying Christ
even though his listeners individually probably had nothing to do with it. He
is accusing the Jews of rejecting the Messiah God sent but giving the people of
God a way back into God’s good graces as the martyr Stephen will later do to
the Jewish leadership.
Acts 2:37
¶ Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is unto you, and to your
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God
shall call. 40 And with many other words
did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. 41 Then they that gladly
received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them
about three thousand souls.
Notice the Jews here asked a similar question to the Philippian
jailor.
Acts
16:30 And brought them out, and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Notice how this baptism is connected with repentance for rejecting
their Messiah, which the leaders of the Jews and the people that followed their
instructions did. The statement here is made after Peter identifies who Jesus
is and what the Jews had done to Him.
First, what does it mean to repent? The
words repent and repentance don’t just carry with them an intellectual assent to
something like just changing your mind. They involve a turning from something like sin or an action you were purposed to
do.
Exodus
32:12 Wherefore should the Egyptians
speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the
mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
Jeremiah
4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and
the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and
will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jeremiah
18:8 If that nation, against whom I have
pronounced, turn from their evil, I
will repent of the evil that I
thought to do unto them.
Jeremiah
26:3 If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that
I may repent me of the evil, which I
purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.
Ezekiel
14:6 Therefore say unto the house of
Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent,
and turn yourselves from your idols;
and turn away your faces from all
your abominations.
Ezekiel
18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O
house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all
your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Jonah
3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
Repenting is
also an inward action, an act of the mind or spirit, with this baptism as the
outward and immediate expression acknowledging the change. Repentance also
implies belief as you repent from sin and turn to God. Sin is downplayed in
today’s Christianity so repentance from it usually receives short shrift except
in the most fundamental of churches. Consider these verses;
Romans
5:8 But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
1John
1:9 If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
So, if sin before we are
saved and after we are saved is not an issue then what do you think about these
verses, if we are just to admit we sin like we admit we chew gum and move on?
And why did Christ trouble Himself to die on the Cross?
1Corinthians
15:3 For I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures;
In the so-called Sermon
on the Mount in Matthew, the spiritual counterpart to the very earthy Sermon on
the Plain in Luke, Jesus made a very important point in saying that it was more
important that you reconcile to a brother who had something against you first
than to offer something to God. In Matthew 5 He made a spiritual application
for mourning as in regard to contextually mourning for sin’s very existence and
hungering for God’s righteousness.
I realize preachers have
taken this too far. The most stunning example is Charles G. Finney’s insistence
that if you weren’t trying to make up for all of your past sins to the people
you had wronged then you probably aren’t saved, which is foolish. But modern
preachers not preaching against sin is just as foolish, if not moreso.
You cannot simply dismiss
sin and your sin nature as a bad rash and forget it. We need to deal with our
sin, or, more importantly to have Christ deal with it.
1John
1:9 If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
Have you mourned for your
sin? Do you weep even now over what you feel so helpless to overcome? Haven’t
some of you ruined your families? Haven’t some of you wasted your youth on
alcohol and promiscuous sex, looking for love and acceptance, a replacement for
your father or mother, pursued money and found bankruptcy, messed up your kids?
Do you feel nothing? Has someone gotten you to believe that everything is just
peachy? David was forgiven but he suffered terribly for his sin, in his family.
Don’t you mourn?
I know that there are
verses about salvation that don’t mention repentance like Romans 10:9, 10 or
Acts 16:31 but we need to look at all of the verses on a topic before we
formulate a doctrine in our head. Repentance from sin, from what you are, a
sinner, repudiating your sin and turning it over to Christ, trusting His
righteousness and not your own is basic to Bible salvation. You won’t come to
the point of receiving Christ if you don’t realize you are spiritually bankrupt
without God.
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Isaiah 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all
those things have been, saith
the LORD: but to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at my word. [contrite is
a feeling of remorse, based on guilt]
Psalm
34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as
be of a contrite spirit.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit: a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The result of repentance and faith is the receiving of the Holy
Ghost who indwells the believer, the Spirit of God and Christ, also called the
Holy Spirit in its active state with the Holy Ghost being His person.
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