Blindness – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:41:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cropped-headerlogo-32x32.png Blindness – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com 32 32 Ever Learning But Never Coming to the Knowledge of the Truth https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/ever-learning-but-never-coming-to-the-knowledge-of-the-truth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ever-learning-but-never-coming-to-the-knowledge-of-the-truth Tue, 24 Dec 2024 05:51:22 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=31673 Audio Download

“Ever Learning But Never Coming to the Knowledge of the Truth”

[Study Aired Dec 24, 2024]

Have we found ourselves guilty of constantly studying God’s Word yet failing to truly understand its spiritual meaning? The apostle Paul addresses this very condition in his second letter to Timothy: “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). Before we quickly dismiss this warning as applying only to others, let us examine ourselves in light of this scripture and its context.

Paul warns Timothy about certain characteristics that would mark the last days:

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.“ (2 Timothy 3:1-7).

Could we be among those who maintain “a form of godliness” while denying its power? Do we study scripture yet miss its spiritual significance? This self-examination is critical because as Paul explains elsewhere:

“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 all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16).

This passage reveals why mere intellectual study without spiritual discernment leaves us ever learning but never knowing truth. We must ask ourselves: Are we approaching scripture with natural understanding or seeking spiritual discernment through Christ’s mind working in us?

Can we not see ourselves at times being ever so zealous in studying scripture, attending studies, reading religious books and commentaries, yet somehow missing the life-changing truth of God’s Word? Consider how God, through the prophet Isaiah, describes this condition:

“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” (Isaiah 29:13-14).

We must be honest with ourselves – how often do we study God’s Word yet miss its spiritual application? The Jews of Jesus’ day exemplified this problem. They diligently studied scripture but failed to recognize its fulfillment standing right before them:

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39-40).

This shows us that it’s possible to be thoroughly versed in scripture yet miss its true spiritual meaning. The Pharisees and scribes knew the letter of the law but missed its spirit. Could we be falling into the same pattern? Paul explains why this happens:

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

The issue isn’t that study itself is wrong – God commands us to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Rather, the problem comes when we rely on our natural understanding instead of allowing God’s spirit to illuminate His Word. Consider what God says through Jeremiah:

“Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

This scripture reveals that true knowledge isn’t about accumulating information but about knowing God Himself. Yet how can we know if we’re truly growing in spiritual understanding rather than just accumulating head knowledge? Jesus provides the answer:

“And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 4:21-23).

True spiritual understanding manifests itself in changed lives. When we truly understand God’s Word spiritually, it transforms us. As Paul explains:

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30).

The question we must ask ourselves is whether our learning is producing this conformity to Christ’s image. Are we being transformed by what we learn, or are we merely collecting religious knowledge? Consider what Peter writes about this transformation:

“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Let us examine more deeply the key words in Paul’s warning: “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).

The Greek word for “learning” here is “manthanō” (Strong’s G3129), which implies not just casual learning but the idea of being a disciple or student. It suggests intentional, dedicated study. Yet despite this dedicated learning, they are “never able” – from the Greek “mēdepote” (G3368), meaning “not even at any time” or “never at all” – to come to “knowledge” – “epignōsis” (G1922), which refers to precise, correct, or full knowledge.

This distinction in the Greek reveals something profound. These individuals aren’t casual seekers but dedicated students who somehow remain unable to grasp true spiritual understanding. They pursue “gnosis” (basic knowledge) but never arrive at “epignosis” (full, experiential knowledge). The word “truth” – “alētheia” (G225) – in Greek means reality or certainty, suggesting that while they study endlessly, they never grasp spiritual reality.

Consider how this connects to what Jesus said about spiritual understanding:

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.” (Matthew 11:25-26).

The “wise and prudent” here represent those who rely on natural understanding, while “babes” represent those who humbly receive spiritual revelation. This explains why some can study endlessly yet miss truth – they rely on natural wisdom rather than spiritual revelation. As Paul explains:

“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-6).

The transition from endless learning to true spiritual understanding requires divine intervention. This is made clear when we compare these words from Jeremiah:

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23).

With Paul’s explanation of how spiritual understanding comes:

“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.” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).

The Lord reveals through Jeremiah why some remain in this state of perpetual learning without understanding:

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.“ (Jeremiah 13:23-24).

Our natural state cannot receive spiritual truth without divine intervention, which is why Jesus explained to Nicodemus the necessity of spiritual birth:

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.“ (John 3:3-5).

Our inability to receive spiritual understanding serves God’s purpose, for as Paul reveals:

“For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:32-34).

The very condition of being “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” demonstrates our complete dependence on God’s mercy for true understanding. This aligns with what Jesus taught His disciples:

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matthew 13:13-15).

The inability to understand spiritual truth serves as a witness against our natural state, proving we need divine intervention to comprehend spiritual matters. Paul explains this divine work:

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

Even Christ’s disciples struggled with spiritual understanding until He opened their minds:

“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:45-47).

This reveals a critical truth – spiritual understanding is a gift from God, not something we achieve through human effort. David understood this when he prayed:

“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.” (Psalm 119:18-20).

The Lord promises this spiritual understanding will come to those He chooses:

“And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” (Jeremiah 24:7).

This aligns with Paul’s teaching that God must grant repentance for understanding to come:

“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

When God works transformation in our hearts, it produces visible evidence through changed living. James reveals how true wisdom manifests:

“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.” (James 3:13-15)

This fruit can only come through abiding in Christ, as He taught:

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:5-6)

How then does God cause us to move beyond endless learning to true spiritual understanding? The prophet Ezekiel reveals this process:

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

This transformative work begins with God giving us “ears to hear” spiritual truth. As Jesus repeatedly emphasized:

“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.“ (Revelation 2:11).

The ability to hear and understand spiritual truth comes through Christ dwelling in us. Paul explains this mystery:

“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Colossians 1:26-28).

This indwelling of Christ transforms our learning from mere head knowledge to spiritual understanding. As Paul writes to Timothy in the same letter as our study verse:

“Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.” (2 Timothy 2:7-8)

Yet this understanding is not given to all, for the Lord purposely keeps some in blindness while they pursue religious knowledge. Isaiah reveals this divine purpose:

“Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.” (Isaiah 29:9-10)

This spiritual blindness serves God’s purpose, as Paul declares:

“For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” (Romans 9:17-18).

True spiritual understanding comes only through God’s work in us:

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).

The Lord makes clear that both the understanding of truth and the ability to believe come as His gift:

“Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.” (Luke 8:10).

“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Knowing this truth should move us to seek wisdom as James instructs:

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8).

]]> Acts 9:1-22 Saul, Saul why Persecutest thou Me? https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/acts-91-22-saul-saul-why-persecutest-thou-me/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=acts-91-22-saul-saul-why-persecutest-thou-me Sun, 26 Feb 2023 06:28:15 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=27221 Act 9:1-22 Saul, Saul why Persecutest thou Me?
[Study Aired February 26, 2023]

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Act 9:7  And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
Act 9:8  And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
Act 9:9  And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.
Act 9:10  And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
Act 9:11  And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
Act 9:12  And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
Act 9:13  Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
Act 9:14  And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
Act 9:15  But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
Act 9:16  For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.
Act 9:17  And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Act 9:18  And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
Act 9:19  And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.
Act 9:20  And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
Act 9:21  But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?
Act 9:22  But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

Acts 7 ended with those stoning Stephen laying their clothes down at the feet of Saul of Tarsus. Chapter 8 begins with Saul making the eradication of the followers of Christ his life’s mission:

Act 8:1  And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Act 8:2  And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
Act 8:3  As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

It was through this persecution being spearheaded by Saul of Tarsus that the church was scattered and the gospel began to be spread out beyond Jerusalem. Next, we are told the story of Philip, one of the first seven deacons, preaching the gospel in Samaria, and from there being sent by the holy spirit south toward Gaza and meeting with, witnessing to and baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch and then being carried of the spirit to Azotus – “and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.”

Here in chapter 9 we are brought back to the fact that Saul of Tarsus has all along been zealously persecuting the church and has even asked the High priest for letters to go to Damascus to continue his mission of wiping out the church of Christ:

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

Damascus is the capital of Syria, a Gentile nation which is north of Israel. Here is a quote from the link below concerning the distance between Jerusalem and Damascus and how long it would have taken Paul to make that journey to Damascus:

If it took Saul “two weeks (give or take a few days)” to get to Damascus, it would have taken that long or longer to return with his captives. As we know, Saul never took any captives back to Jerusalem. When Saul finally did return to Jerusalem, the only ‘captive’ he brought back was himself, after he had been apprehended by the holy spirit.

Saul, typifying each of us, has no idea what he is getting himself into. From his perspective he is going international with his mission of destroying the doctrines of Christ and His followers, and he is doing so out of great zeal for the law of Moses.

Here is what he was doing in his own words:

1Co 15:9  For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Gal 1:13  For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Paul’s zeal for persecuting the church did not keep him from “the righteousness which is in the law.” It was “the righteousness which is in the law [that made him] blameless.” His persecution of the church was rather in line and in accord with his zeal for the Torah and the law of Moses which taught:

Deu 20:16  But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

The only thing worse than “these people which the Lord your God doth give thee for an inheritance” is an apostate fellow Israelite who teaches anything contrary to the Torah and the law of Moses.

Here is “the righteousness that is in the law”:

Deu 13:6  If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
Deu 13:7  Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
Deu 13:8  Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
Deu 13:9  But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
Deu 13:10  And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Jerusalem is “nigh unto thee” (Deu 13:6) and Damascus is “far off from thee” (Deu 13:6). Saul sincerely believed that the followers of Christ were telling other Jews, “Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers.” Therefore, he sincerely believed that he had the Old Testament, the Torah itself, telling him:

Deu 13:9  But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
Deu 13:10  And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

That is exactly how Saul had justified the stoning of Stephen, which he had supervised, and that is how he justified his mission to destroy all the followers of Christ.

Speaking before King Agrippa Paul confessed to his hatred for Christ and His followers:

Act 26:9  I verily thought with myself [Because of the teaching of Deuteronomy 13:6-10], that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Act 26:10  Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
Act 26:11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Here in Acts 26, many years later, Paul is in prison in Caesarea where he is relating before King Agrippa all the things that happened to him when he took his campaign “unto strange cities”. It all serves to demonstrate that Christ’s great “reformation” is in full swing. That is the subject of our study today: the conversion of Saul and the commission given him serves as a type of how Christ deals with His enemies. The ease with which the Lord dealt with Saul of Tarsus demonstrates the ease with which He can adjust the attitude of His very worst opponents, individually, nationally, and internationally. It also shows us how the Lord is dragging His Jewish apostles one step closer to finally understanding that the Torah is nothing more than a school teacher to bring us to Christ after which we are “no longer under the law”… no longer under Torah:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: [Torah, the law of Moses requires physical circumcision]
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter [not in the law, the Torah]; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Gal 3:19  Wherefore then serveth the law [Torah]? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Gal 3:20  Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
Gal 3:21  Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ [Not our own faith, Eph 2:8] might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came [Before the mature faith of Christ came, Jas 2:19], we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law [Babylon] was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [G3516: ‘nepios’, a spiritual “babe in Christ… yet carnal” (1Co 3:1-4)], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors [under the law of Moses, under Torah] until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world [The law of Moses, Torah]:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law [“under the elements of the world”], that we might receive the adoption of sons.

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law [Torah] is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Romans, Galatians, and Timothy are all written by the man who was once the Torah observant Pharisee who was blameless in the righteousness, which is in the law in the Torah.

Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

Saul of Tarsus, the self-righteous Pharisee, is about to receive an ‘attitude adjustment’ at the hands of the most persuasive power in the universe. It will be with this same power of persuasion that “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel… as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even unto the west and arrange just such an ‘attitude adjustment’ upon all the rulers of all the nations, and all the religions of this whole earth at “the coming of the Son of man”:

Mat 24:27  For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Saul had no idea who it was that was asking him why Saul was persecuting Him, but one thing Saul was given to recognize was that whoever this person was this person must be addressed as “Lord”, meaning even Saul of Tarsus knew he was speaking to his Superior, his Master. As we have pointed out, the one hundred-fifty mile journey from Jerusalem to Damascus would have taken more or less two weeks for Saul and his company. Saul had been persecuting Christians with great success for some time now and he had no reason to think this trip to Damascus would be any less successful. There can be no doubt that as he got closer and closer to Damascus the adrenaline had to be flowing as he anticipated arresting those Jewish apostate Christians he so hated and against whom he tells us he was “exceeding mad” (Act 26:11). Nevertheless, the Lord knew exactly who Saul of Tarsus was. He knew him from “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9, Tit 1:2), and it was the Lord Himself who made Saul so exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his fathers. Now the Lord will harness that same zeal and put it to work in His own service:

Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

That is how much Christ identifies with “His body… the church” (Mat 25:40; Col 1:24). We are the ‘Christ’, the anointed of Christ whom He is sending to do exactly what His Father sent Him to accomplish:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Act 9:7  And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
Act 9:8  And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
Act 9:9  And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

There are so many lessons and symbols within these few verses of scripture. On a micro scale the whole work of God in our lives is being played out in these verses. The mission of Saul of Tarsus is resisting the words of Stephen and the words of all those he has persecuted and murdered up until this very moment. Saul is not without witness at that time. He has heard the gospel, and he has simply rejected it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the “pricks” which ‘prick’ our conscience when we are shown our own sin. This “bright light from heaven” is “the brightness of [Christ’s] coming” which “destroys [our self-righteous] man of sin” who has appropriated the throne of Christ in our hearts, and who refuses the gospel which shows us that we are the man who has rejected and crucified our own Lord and Savior. Christ is not breaking a sweat as He goes about destroying the man of sin within Saul of Tarsus sitting on His throne within the heart and mind of Saul and within each of us in our own time:

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first [a rejecting of the gospel], and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God [1Co 3:16], shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. [Saul’s old man, and our old man is being “taken out of the way”]
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Saul of Tarsus has come to Damascus to continue what he has been doing for some time now, and he has come “with all power and signs and lying wonders” proclaiming that he is zealous for the traditions of his fathers. What he does not know is that those traditions are as obsolete as Abraham’s altars were after the coming of Moses. What Saul does not know is that the Father has raised up another prophet, like Moses, who, like Moses, is reforming how we are to worship the Lord:

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Heb 9:9  Which [all the ceremonies of the temple] was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

This “time of reformation” is typified in the Old Testament by the crossing of the Jordan, the circumcision of that generation, which were not circumcised while they were in the wilderness, and the fall of Jericho, after blowing the trumpets for seven days and the shouting on the seven day.

Jos 6:1  Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
Jos 6:2  And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.
Jos 6:3  And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
Jos 6:4  And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
Jos 6:5  And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

All of this typifies what took place in the life of Saul of Tarsus as he came near the city of Damascus at the end of His campaign to wipe out the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. The walls of Babylon came crashing down around him on that day just as they come crashing down around us in our own turn, and at our own appointed time.

At this point in his life, Saul of Tarsus typified Israel which came out of Egypt only to rebel against their Savior for forty years in the wilderness. Saul also typifies us as we come out of the world and enter into Babylon where we rebel against our own Savior for a symbolic ‘forty years’ in the wilderness of the churches of Babylon.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

The Lord is showing Saul that he is as spiritually blind as a bat and cannot spiritually see his own hand in front of his face. It is not until any of us are brought to see that we are born spiritually blind that the Lord can then heal us of that spiritual blindness into which we are all born:

Joh 9:1  And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

In this same 9th chapter of the gospel of John we are given the spiritual meaning of this event:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin [your spiritual blindness] remaineth.

Saul of Tarsus truly believed that because he was zealous for observing the Torah, he therefore had 20/20 spiritual vision. “Therefore [his] sin remained” and He found himself ‘kicking against the pricks’ being spiritually blind and in total darkness. However, the Lord is about to give him the beginnings of spiritual vision for the first time in his life:

Act 9:10  And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.

Like Jonathan, the son of King Saul, and like the Ethiopian eunuch in the palace of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, the Lord always has men who are strategically positioned to meet the needs of His own purposes. In this instance it was a man named Ananias:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Act 9:11  And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
Act 9:12  And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

The holy spirit was speaking to Ananias and Saul simultaneously, preparing each to do the Lord’s bidding.

We can only imagine the terror in the heart of Saul of Tarsus when the Lord first struck him down and told him who He was persecuting. Saul had many Christians put to death, including Stephen, and Saul knew what Torah said was to be done to those who opposed the very Lord he thought he was serving while actually fighting against Him. Saul’s reputation had preceded him in Damascus and Ananias feared having to face this man:

Act 9:13  Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
Act 9:14  And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
Act 9:15  But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
Act 9:16  For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

This is the first time “the Gentiles” are mentioned as objects of the gospel, before Israel. The Lord is slowly but surely preparing His apostles to accept the fact that physical pedigree is being replaced with a spiritual pedigree, which has nothing in common with physical descent, physical circumcision, or with the keeping of days, months times or years. In time the apostles will learn that not only is Christ “the Lord of the Sabbath”, but now He IS the ‘rest’ into which we must enter:

Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest [into Christ], lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Act 9:17  And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Act 9:18  And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
Act 9:19  And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.

Later Paul tells us that his “certain days” was “three years… with the disciples which were at Damascus”:

Gal 1:15  But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
Gal 1:16  To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Gal 1:17  Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Gal 1:18  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

Paul did not spend three years in the wilderness of Arabia, as some teach. He doesn’t tell us just how long he was in the wilderness of Arabia, but if Moses is any indication, and if Christ Himself is any indication of how long the Lord takes to prepare men for His service then it was more likely forty days:

Exo 24:18  And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

Whatever the length of time, Saul simply tells us:

Gal 1:17  Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Gal 1:18  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

Act 9:20  And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues [of Damascus for three years], that he is the Son of God.
Act 9:21  But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?
Act 9:22  But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

Israel was mentioned in the commission the Lord gave Saul through Ananias. Saul is not yet aware of the words he will later write in the epistles to the Romans, the Galatians, the Ephesians, and Timothy. It will be many years before the Lord brings even the apostle Paul to say:

Act 13:46  Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
Act 13:47  For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

In our next study we will learn that Saul had to flee Damascus for his life. He will go back to Jerusalem for the first time in three years, and again he will be forced to flee from Jerusalem to save his life after only “fifteen days”. Peter then comes back to our attention as he performs powerful miracles upon well-known people which has the continuing effect of spreading the gospel as the Lord wills. It is all leading up to Peter being sent, in chapter ten, to the house of the Gentile Roman centurion teaching Peter that he is never again to think of Gentiles as being “common or unclean”.

]]> The Book of Kings – 1Ki 1:19-27 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-kings-1ki-119-27-he-is-despised-and-rejected-of-men-a-man-of-sorrows-and-acquainted-with-grief/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-kings-1ki-119-27-he-is-despised-and-rejected-of-men-a-man-of-sorrows-and-acquainted-with-grief Thu, 10 Jun 2021 23:13:33 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=23700

1Ki 1:19-27 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa 53:3)

[Study Aired June 10, 2021]

1Ki 1:19  And he hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host: but Solomon thy servant hath he not called.
1Ki 1:20  And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.
1Ki 1:21  Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.
1Ki 1:22  And, lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also came in.
1Ki 1:23  And they told the king, saying, Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
1Ki 1:24  And Nathan said, My lord, O king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne?
1Ki 1:25  For he is gone down this day, and hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the king’s sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and, behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah.
1Ki 1:26  But me, even me thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called.
1Ki 1:27  Is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not shewed it unto thy servant, who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?

The last part of that verse in Isaiah 53:3 from which our title for tonight’s study is taken says, “and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” It was by hiding our face from the truth in our former conversation because of our blindness (Eph 2:1-3, 2Co 4:4), that we demonstrated we despised and rejected Christ, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

In this section of 1Kings 1 we will learn through the example of Adonijah how, by our self-righteous religious actions, we were all guilty of rejecting Christ by holding fast to His name but not His doctrine (Isa 4:1), and conversely how, when we were given to know the truth, we then began to be rejected and hated by all men for His name’s sake becoming as He is in this world, “rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”. It is by living by the faith of Christ that we can go through the crushing and dying daily experiences  (Gal 2:20) of this life which are precious in the sight of God (1Pe 1:7) who is preparing the bride through those trials to become saviors (Mar 13:13, 1Jn 4:17, 1Pe 2:6-9, Psa 116:15, Col 1:24).

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more  precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Mar 13:13  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

1Pe 2:6  Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
1Pe 2:7  Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
1Pe 2:8  And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient:  whereunto also they were appointed.
1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Psa 116:15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Before Solomon, a type of the elect in this instance, can be appointed king by King David, who represents Christ, we need to see the extent of our own pride and self-righteousness that wants to do good and offer sacrifices as Adonijah did, and how we naturally forget these words: “Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1Sa 15:22-23). That obedience is something we learn through the things we suffer as we go from glory to glory (2Co 3:18) beholding the glory of Christ our hope of glory within (Col 1:27) who gives us the power to be able to be obedient, until ultimately we will no longer “hid[e] as it were our faces from him” but rather see him face to face (1Co 13:12, Joh 17:3-4).

1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Joh 17:4  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do (Rom 4:17, Eph 2:10).

Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

1Ki 1:19  And he hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host: but Solomon thy servant hath he not called. 

As we just read in 1Samuel 15:22-23, these sacrifices of “oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance” which were slain demonstrate the stubbornness in Adonijah’s heart and the extent that he and all flesh will go to in order to get its own way that seems right (Pro 14:12). We do many wonderful ‘religious’ works (Mat 7:22-23) without truly knowing that Christ is the one who is working in us both to will and to do all those works (Php 2:12-13).

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [our own righteousness of (Php 3:9)].

Eze 18:26  When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.

The righteousness being spoken of in Ezekiel from which we turn away is typical of the righteousness of Christ who is our righteousness (1Co 1:30), and when God causes us to err by hardening our hearts (Isa 63:17), we die in our own works that Christ likened to the dead burying the dead (Luk 9:60). God is in the process of burning all this self-righteousness out of Christ’s bride as we’re led to repentance (Rom 2:4). God is working with the elect in this age to bring about mature sons who will glorify Him as vessels that have been made unto honour, through a sanctification process, that makes us meet for the master’s use, being prepared unto every good work (2Ti 2:21, Rev 19:7, Eph 2:10, Mat 3:8)

1Co 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Mat 3:8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

This is the blindness that is caused and is typified by Jacob who for seven years served the tender eyedH7390 firstborn Leah who represents our completely blind flesh that cannot see (seven years) until we are given Rachel who represents the gift of God’s grace given to us through faith (Gen 29:17-20, Eph2:8).

Gen 29:16  And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
Gen 29:17  Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured.
Gen 29:18  And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
Gen 29:19  And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.
Gen 29:20  And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

Adonijah was in no way following the principle that Christ tells us in Luke 14:12-15 and had chosen rather to invite those people who would best advance his goal of securing his position as king via “Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host“. In Adonijah’s mind, these were the most likely people who would “bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee”, which was his way of seeking political advantage.

Luk 14:12  Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
Luk 14:13  But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
Luk 14:14  And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just [Rev 20:6].
Luk 14:15  And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

The banquet that God’s elect are called to is the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9) and so we only need to look at Christ’s example here to know who it is that has been determined to be called from the foundation of the world: “the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” — those who have been brought to see that they are unworthy (Luk 15:19, Luk 17:10) and see the hope in these trustworthy statements (1Ti 1:15-16, 1Co 1:26-29) that are worthy of all acceptation.

Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

Luk 17:10  So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1Ti 1:16  Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

“The king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host” represent the mighty and the noble of this world who will, in God’s time, see the order of His plan that was determined to be that way so that “no flesh should glory in his presence”.

“But Solomon thy servant hath he not called” reminds us that Adonijah was not given to receive the wisdom that was needed in order to become the true king of Israel as it was too high for him (Pro 24:7). Adonijah typifies our flesh trying to find some other way into the kingdom of God (Joh 10:1); that some other way being our own works, our own righteousness (Php 3:9).

Pro 24:7  Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.

Joh 10:1  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

1Ki 1:20  And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. 
1Ki 1:21  Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.
1Ki 1:22  And, lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also came in.

This verse, “And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him“, has its fulfillment for God’s elect in Malachi 3:18, which is when the eyes of “all Israel” who represents the world (Rev 5:10, 1Co 6:3), will look to mount Zion which represents the elect who will judge the mount of Esau (Oba 1:21). We are all offenders. But for the grace of God our offences as a kind of first fruits are given an accounting in this life, which is represented by the actions of Bathsheba and Nathan who are disclosing the facts about Adonijah whose life represents our former conversation (Eph 2:1-3). That is the reason we ought to come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain grace in “time of need” (Heb 4:16, 1Pe 4:17) along with this attitude of humbling ourselves before the king (1Ki 1:16, 1Ki 1:23) who represents Christ Who already knows we are the man of 2Samuel 12:7 and that we have all forsaken Christ in our time (Mat 26:22, Mar 14:50). In other words, if Christ does not set us free from sin (Joh 8:36), “I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders“.

Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Verse 21 is accompanied by an admonition for us right after verse 20 stating “Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders“, telling us also that unless our witness does not truthfully go forth through Christ, who is our hope of glory represented by King David, that their blood will be upon our head and we “shall be counted offenders” (Eze 3:18-19, 1Ti 4:15-16). The solution to being able to heed this admonition of being a faithful witness is given to us in the form of a parable represented by Nathan who in verse 22 appears on the scene, stated this way: “while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also came in“.

Our hope is not in this life alone because we know Christ is raised, and although it is true “my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers“, our hope is that Christ our king is raised now and we are raised with him in earnest making it possible for us to be true witnesses who are not experiencing any condemnation in Christ (Rom 8:1). If God so allows, then we are being blessed to demonstrate our discipleship through obedience to God’s commands as we experience His love being shed abroad in our hearts for that very reason of giving us the power to be obedient and faithful witnesses (Rev 11:3) to the end of this life (1Co 15:14, Eph 2:6, Rom 5:5).

Eze 3:18  When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 3:19  Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

1Ti 4:15  Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
1Ti 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

1Co 15:14  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Bathsheba is a type of the church whose witness to the king is going to be confirmed by the prophet Nathan. We are dragged to the king (Joh 6:44) to make these requests and are accepted in the beloved through God’s holy spirit (Eph 1:6). Nathan is the second person to confirm (witness) what was being brought to the king, and Nathan is a type of the spirit of God which will bear witness that we are His sons in this age who have been given the power to testify, while others deny Christ who won’t deny Himself, if He is abiding in us and saving us by grace through faith (Mat 10:19, Rom 8:14-16, the spirit of God is not bound 2Ti 2:10-13, Joh 6:63, 2Co 3:17, Rom 8:9, Eph 2:8).

Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

1Ki 1:23  And they told the king, saying, Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

Unlike David, Christ knows what is going on all the time and everywhere in the earth (2Ch 16:9, Jer 1:12), and this statement “and they told the king” is typical of the statement found in the book of Job where Christ asks this question that would generate an answer: “And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”(Job 1:7). That question was not for His benefit but for ours to remind us that we are constantly dealing with a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and yet he will not prevail or catch God’s elect off guard if we are granted to resist him stedfastly in the faith (1Pe 5:8-9, Mat 16:18, Luk 22:31).

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: [1Jn 5:4] and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

What we hope to see in all our dealings with Christ in each other is this spirit of humility that Nathan brought forth: “and when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground” (Php 2:3). Having our “face to the ground” is a symbolic gesture that reminds us who we are to be in the presence of our King.

1Ki 1:23  And they told the king, saying, Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himselfH7812 before the king with his faceH639 to the ground.

Zep 2:3  Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S angerH639.

1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

1Ki 1:24  And Nathan said, My lord, O king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? 
1Ki 1:25  For he is gone down this day, and hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the king’s sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and, behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah.

The discerning mind of Christ, represented by King David, is going to make a declaration very shortly after all the facts are stated by Bathsheba and Nathan (1Co 2:15-16).

1Co 2:15  But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Bathsheba and Nathan have gone about to establish this witness with humility in their approach stating only the facts of the matter on which the king will base his arbitration (Pro 18:13). Nathan begins by asking king David if these are his words “Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne” to immediately establish that Adonijah’s actions were self-willed, boastful (Pro 25:14), and not ordained by the king, which Nathan and Bathsheba wanted to be sure was the case (1Jn 4:1).

Pro 18:13  He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

If this is the case that David has approved Adonijah to be king, then surely David would have been the one putting all of these things together (Luk 15:27) that Adonijah took upon himself to do, “for he is gone down this day, and hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the king’s sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and, behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah.” These were all normal proceedings for someone who has been ordained to be a king, but in Adonijah’s case it was all a demonstration of the flesh wanting to be acknowledged and given approval for his own personal gain (Mat 6:2).

Luk 15:27  And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

Mat 6:2  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

These were the matters that Bathsheba and Nathan were searching out in order to preserve the true lineage of the king, and it demonstrates a typical lesson that we are called to learn by looking well unto ourselves and the church (1Pe 1:12, Act 20:28) so that by the grace of God no man will take our crown (Pro 25:2, Jer 17:10, Rev 2:2, Rev 3:11).

Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Pro 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

1Ki 1:26  But me, even me thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called.
1Ki 1:27  Is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not shewed it unto thy servant, who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?

Nathan’s statement had the veiled understanding that Adonijah was conveniently calling who he wanted in order to get approval for his actions, even as he steered away from calling on Nathan “thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called“.

Calling ZadokH6659 would have brought condemnation to Adonijah, just as would calling NathanH5416 along with BenaiahH1141 son of JehoiadaH3077 and SolomonH8010.

Twice now Nathan is used to bring this question to the king, once through his counsel given to Bathsheba, and then from his own mouth (1Ki 1:13, 1Ki 1:27): “Is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not shewed it unto thy servant, who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?“.  Nathan respectfully puts this question before the king because none of this appears right in the heart and minds of him and Bathsheba, and the Lord is showing us that a witness will always be established against our old man, typified here by Adonijah: “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets”.

We will all feel the rejection that will cause us to groan in our spirits as we long with all the saints for his vindication on our lives that have become like Christ “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Rev 6:10, Isa 53:3).

Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice [Heb 5:7], saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Next week, Lord willing, we will see the type and shadow answer to this question “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” as we look at the response King David gives that brings us into remembrance of these verses.

Hab 2:3  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

]]> The Book of Hebrews – Heb 9:1 Part 1 – “Christ Being Come an High Priest of Good Things to Come” https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-hebrews-heb-91-part-1-christ-being-come-an-high-priest-of-good-things-to-come/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-hebrews-heb-91-part-1-christ-being-come-an-high-priest-of-good-things-to-come Thu, 26 Nov 2020 17:45:42 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=21775 https://www.dropbox.com/s/0j9m5gu7nfc2wz5/Tony-Heb-9_1.mp3?raw=1

Heb 9:1 Part 1 – “Christ Being Come an High Priest of Good Things to Come”

[Study Aired November 26, 2020]

Heb 9:1  Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 

The statement “Christ being come an high priest of good things to come” in verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 9 (Heb 9:11) is contrasted with the first ten verses of Hebrews chapter 9 which speak of the “ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary” that were all found within the temple or tabernacle God ordained and established for our sakes (2Co 4:15) to help us understand what He is doing within the temple which we are today (1Co 3:16).

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

As we compare “spiritual things with spiritual” (1Co 2:13), using the physical tabernacle and all the “ordinances of divine service” within that tabernacle, what God is doing today in His workmanship which we are (Eph 2:10) should become brighter, giving us the vision and hope of those things He has promised to finish in us through Christ (Php 1:6) to whom we look as our high priest (Heb 12:2) who is the “minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Heb 8:2).

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Heb 8:2  A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

We are abiding in Christ’s body, which is the temple (Col 1:24), where we “consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself” knowing that as the body of Christ we can fill up what is behind of His afflictions “for his body’s sake, which is the church” as we endure, through Christ (Php 4:13), being hated of all men for His name’s sake (Mat 10:22). This endurance is only possible as we nourish and supply what each of us needs, (Eph 4:16) bearing each other’s burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ (Gal 6:2).

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

The new commandment God has given His church is a spiritual law in our members, His love being shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5) that makes it possible for us to abide in His truth (Joh 8:31-32) which is witnessed in our obedience to His commandments (Joh 14:15). Our discipleship, our love toward one another, is expressed through that obedience (Act 5:32, Joh 13:35).

Rom 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

Joh 13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

The “ordinances of divine service” in the temple of old is a type and shadow of that discipleship and explains to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear (Mat 13:16) how we are nourished at the altar, which is the cross and the place where our Lord strengthens us and provides all that we need in order to fulfill our Father’s will “in earth, as it is in heaven” (Php 1:29, Mat 6:10).

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

If we don’t labour for that meat which does not perish, we would “be wearied and faint in your minds” of Hebrews 12:3, but if we know that our labour is not in vain and that Christ is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, then we should rejoice and again I say rejoice (Php 4:4, Rom 8:16) as we go about our Father’s business working out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Heb 11:6-7), knowing that those labours are building up the temple of God and making us stronger and ready to face whatever the future holds (Php 2:12-13, Eph 6:11-12, Heb 4:11). This building up of the temple is all being accomplished through Christ (Psa 127:1) and is the reason we point each other to this statement: “Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle (Col 1:24), not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building”.

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil [Mat 24:24, Mat 16:17-18].
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Heb 9:1  Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine serviceG2999, and a worldly sanctuary.

In this first verse it is very informative to notice how the word “divine serviceG2999” is used in other verses, particularly in John 16:2 and Romans 9:4.

The serviceG2999 of God can have both a negative and positive viewpoint, and yet as with all of the promises of God and all the service that we render unto Him, whether it is under strong delusion (Act 4:27-28) or with the clear mind of Christ, they are still all working out “for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” in the end (2Co 1:20, Rom 8:28).

2Co 1:20  For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

When the time is appointed for God’s elect to be put out of the synagogue, there are those who believe they are doing Godly service by carrying out these actions, which we do in our appointed time when we rejected Christ and put Him out of our midst because of our spiritual blindness (Psa 14:3, Psa 53:3, Rom 3:10).

For those who are called and chosen in this life (Mat 22:14), we are told “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God serviceG2999“. The positive end result of this service is expressed with the story of the blind man who was healed and put out of the synagogue, where he then met Christ who had a very pointed question for him (Joh 9:35, Joh 9:1-39).

Joh 9:1  And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Joh 9:4  I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Joh 9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Joh 9:6  When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
Joh 9:7  And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
Joh 9:8  The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?
Joh 9:9  Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.
Joh 9:10  Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
Joh 9:11  He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.
Joh 9:12  Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.
Joh 9:13  They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.
Joh 9:14  And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
Joh 9:15  Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.
Joh 9:16  Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.
Joh 9:17  They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
Joh 9:18  But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight.
Joh 9:19  And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?
Joh 9:20  His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
Joh 9:21  But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.
Joh 9:22  These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Joh 9:23  Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.
Joh 9:24  Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.
Joh 9:25  He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Joh 9:26  Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?
Joh 9:27  He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?
Joh 9:28  Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.
Joh 9:29  We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
Joh 9:30  The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
Joh 9:31  Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Joh 9:32  Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
Joh 9:33  If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
Joh 9:34  They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
Joh 9:35  Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? [Joh 6:28-29, Jas 2:19, 1Jn 5:4, Joh 8:31, Joh 8:44]
Joh 9:36  He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
Joh 9:37  And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
Joh 9:38  And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

This story in John 9 typifies our coming out of Babylon and the need for us to be healed from spiritual blindness (Joh 9:39, 1Pe 4:17). Spiritual healing comes through judgment that occurs once we are able to receive God’s word that is sent to us (Psa 107:20). We come to see that we have been spiritually blind and are now coming out of the strongholds under which Babylon had us. Through the grace and faith God gives us, we begin to see how that blindness has always overtaken the whole world (2Co 4:4), including the religious world of Babylon out of which we have been called (2Co 6:17). Christ meets us with our newly opened eyes and asks the question in John 9:35: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” because there is a lifetime of overcoming in front of us that is going to be accomplished by believing “on the Son of God”. That belief in the truth motivates us to labour for the meat that will not perish (Joh 6:27).

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

2Co 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.

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Joh 6:27  Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

That blindness continues to this day in the synagogues of this world where there are blind guides leading the blind, and both are falling into the ditch (Mat 23:24, Mat 15:14, Mat 16:6). Christ had compassion on this one specific man for our sakes (Joh 9:1-39, Joh 6:44), so we see with this one story how a man was dragged out of “a worldly sanctuary” that represents the churches of this world today where there is no stay of bread or water (Isa 3:1) and was healed by the only One who can heal our eyes spiritually so we can understand the truth (Joh 9:32, Luk 8:10). This statement in John 9:32 is still true in the body of Christ. Even greater works than these physical healings Christ did are predestined to happen as Christ works in us both to will and do of our Father’s good pleasure, which is to bring spiritual healing to the eyes and ears of those whom the Father drags to us (Joh 14:12, Joh 6:44).

The verses which lead up to Paul mentioning the service of his fellow Israelites (Rom 9:1-4) reveal the desire that should be within each of us for all our fellow kinsman in Adamic flesh. We know that in their appointed time they will come to know the truth (1Co 15:23). Moses expressed this same sentiment in this verse (Num 11:29):

Rom 9:1  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Rom 9:2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Rom 9:3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Rom 9:4  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Num 11:29  And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

Paul longed for his fellow Israelites “to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the serviceG2999 of God, and the promises” to know what he knew by grace through faith. However, not only his fellow kinsman but all the world, represented by the seven churches of Asia, would “be turned away from me” (2Ti 1:15). Those churches represent the “worldly sanctuary” as well, in not being able to spiritually see and eat at the table which the Lord has exclusively given to very few in this life (Heb 13:10, Luk 10:24).

Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

Luk 10:24  For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

There is a divine order in Babylon as people live and move and have their being in Christ (Act 17:28) just as there is order in the court section of the temple that we are not to measure (Rev 11:2). That service that is rendered through the unbelieving who are typified by Levi who are joined unto us is for our sakes, and they serve us in their unbelief (Rom 11:32) and remind us of the incredible miracle of our calling and the need to never take it for granted, neglect it, or become highminded or conceited as though we had anything to do with our eyes and ears having been opened (Rom 11:11-22). We are to remember these words as God’s elect and see our calling as a work of God’s hands: “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine serviceG2999, and a worldly sanctuary“, never spitting on it or looking down on anyone, knowing that God has each and everyone of us exactly where we are, to His glory.

Rom 11:11  I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Rom 11:12  Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
Rom 11:13  For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
Rom 11:14  If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
Rom 11:15  For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
Rom 11:16  For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
Rom 11:17  And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Rom 11:18  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Rom 11:19  Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
Rom 11:20  Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
Rom 11:21  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Rom 11:22  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

Next week, Lord willing, we will look into a few of the various physical items in the tabernacle of old so we may learn what those various parts of the temple mean for Christ’s body today. The story of the blind man being healed really encapsulates what we want to learn from our Lord as He draws us out of the shadows or “patterns of things in the heavens” so that our heavens can be purified with “the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” (Heb 9:23-24)

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

]]> Studies in Psalms – Psa 109:22-31 – “Help Me, O LORD My God: O Save Me According to Thy Mercy” – Part 3 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/studies-in-psalms-psa-10922-31-help-me-o-lord-my-god-o-save-me-according-to-thy-mercy-part-3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=studies-in-psalms-psa-10922-31-help-me-o-lord-my-god-o-save-me-according-to-thy-mercy-part-3 Sun, 28 Oct 2018 03:38:19 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=17419 Psa 109:22-31 – “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy” – Part 3

Psa 109:22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
Psa 109:23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
Psa 109:24 My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.
Psa 109:25 I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.
Psa 109:26 Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:
Psa 109:27 That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.
Psa 109:28 Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.
Psa 109:29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
Psa 109:30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
Psa 109:31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

In type and shadow in this Psalm, David is teaching us a great lesson which is centered around the words, “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy: That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.” David wants his enemies to know that he’s nothing, and that it is the God of heaven and earth whom he serves who makes him more than a conqueror as he is greatly delivered by God’s hand, by God’s mercy. For God’s elect today that is a key note of which to take notice because we want the world to know of the mercy that God has extended to us and to be able to show that same mercy to them one day.

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Psa 44:4  Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches [what riches? (Rom 2:4)] both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

As the title explains, it is God’s mercy being revealed by delivering us according to his mercy “Help me, O LORD my God: “O save me according to thy mercy” that is so wondrous to us. David is expressing his gratitude for that deliverance from his physical enemies, and that thanks is a shadow of the sacrifice of thanks on our lips toward God for the wonderful works that He is doing within us in this age as He delivers us from our selves by the sword of His word.

Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:32  Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

Heb 13:15  By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Rom 2:27  And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: [that which will circumcise our hearts]

What happens to us when we are delivered by God from our blindness is a desire within us to let others know that “That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it“, and we share this testimony of His mercy that delivers us because He has revealed “the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” to us by leading us unto repentance. We are dragged by God, to bear witness of this healing which is taking place in our age.

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Joh 9:21  But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. [“he is of age“ is a statement confirming that this physical healing of this man is a type of the spiritual sight which is being given to God’s elect in this age. Our former mother Babylon says “we know not” and when we were of our father the devil “we know not”. The words “he is of age” are type and shadow words that Christ uttered in John 14:20 “At that day”.]
Joh 9:22  These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ (1Jn 4:2-3), he should be put out of the synagogue. [and that’s a good thing (Rev 18:4)]
Joh 9:23  Therefore said his parents, He is of age [type and shadow of this verse as well (Mat 24:34)]; ask him.
Joh 9:24  Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise (Rom 2:29): we know that this man is a sinner. [they know in their evil hearts that Christ is a sinner. They are convinced and say “Give God the praise” not knowing that the very work of healing that Christ did was giving praise to God and glorifying Him (Joh 9:3)].
Joh 9:25  He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Joh 9:26  Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? [Luk 16:26]
Joh 9:27  He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?
Joh 9:28  Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.
Joh 9:29  We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is (Joh 8:23).
Joh 9:30  The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
Joh 9:31  Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth (Joh 4:23, Joh 6:63).
Joh 9:32  Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind (Mat 13:16).
Joh 9:33  If this man were not of God, he could do nothing (Joh 5:30).
Joh 9:34  They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
Joh 9:35  Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? [why does Christ ask this question first? That is for our sakes. The answer to that question is in Joh 6:29]
Joh 9:36  He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
Joh 9:37  And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee (Joh 14:9).
Joh 9:38  And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. [We must continue in God’s word once we believe (Joh 8:31).]
Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. [The crux of this whole story is explained in this one statement of Christ in verse 39 and reminds us of this verse in John 9:41].

Luk 12:11  And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:
Luk 12:12  For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. [these verses are very much demonstrated in type and shadow for us by this man who was blind but now sees and stands before the unbelieving teaching (Joh 9:34)]

No one can come to the Son unless the Father drags him, and this miracle of being dragged to Christ is what will bring about the circumcision of our hearts in this age if God is preparing us to be kings and priests. Again, it is God who “hath made us kings and priests“, and for that we rejoice and give thanks even as we go about our life with a sentence of death on us, as Christ had all his life, and consider ourselves “killed all the day long” and “as sheep for the slaughter” with him.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

In Romans 8:36 we are told why it is possible that we can present our lives a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) and that is because “it is written” in our books “For thy sake“. It is for God’s word, the sword that does not depart from our house, that we are killed all day long and able to die daily, and “it is written” to the glory of God that His word within us is able to accomplish this within us. That is our hope of glory within! (2Sa 12:10, 1Co 15:31, Col 1:27). There is a lot of death that must occur (all nations brought into subjection within us – Rev 13:7-10), and it will require a lot of quickening from God’s spirit that can only come through Christ who is wielding that sword in our lives both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:13). He is tireless in that pursuit in the lives of His elect as He cleanses the temple that we are, being consumed “for the zeal of thine house”. It is in this glorious work that God is doing in the temple of God, that we are, that we learn “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (Psa 69:9, Joh 14:20).

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them [Luk 18:32]: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life (Joh 16:2, Joh 9:24) of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9  If any man have an ear, let him hear (Mat 13:16).
Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints (Luk 18:33).

Everything we’ve looked at up to this point I pray will help us see that we must be the “poor and needy, and my [whose] heart is wounded within me” of this world if we are going to be used of God to reveal “the thoughts of many hearts” which represents all the world and all the angelic world in time.

Luk 2:35  (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Psa 109:22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

This wounded heart of David that is “poor and needy” is a type and shadow of the broken and contrite heart that God gives to those with whom He is working in this age (Isa 66:2). Without hearts that are being abased (Mat 23:12), without becoming as a child via conversion (Mat 18:3), we will in no wise inherit the kingdom, and yet God tells us that the sword will not depart from our house (2Sa 12:10), and we will be blessed to drink the cup indeed (Mat 20:23) which will humble us and keep us mindful that it is all to the glory of God that we can overcome in this age and be made ready as the bride of Christ (1Pe 4:18, Rev 19:7).

Luk 6:20  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

Psa 109:23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

The imagery in this verse reminds us that our flesh is weak as we come to see that we are powerless over it and cannot make war against the beast, the powers and principalities, the false doctrines in our heavens (Rev 13:4), but alas it is by God’s power that we are girded because Christ, as we discussed last week, is in the midst of the church, typified by John who eats locust and honey while he is girt about the paps as well (Rev 1:13, Mat 3:4) and makes his strength perfect through our weakness (2Co 12:9).

Eventually those locusts become meat for us, just as those giants in our land nourish our souls and are likened unto bread (Num 14:9). It is that nourishment which makes it possible for the body of Christ to no longer be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine (Eph 4:14). We must experience that instability at first in order to see clearly who the stronger man is in our life who binds the strong man or the wickedness in our heavens, in time, by destroying it with the brightness of His coming into our heavens where those shadows and locust abide (Mar 3:27, 2Th 2:8).

Psa 109:24 My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

Ours knees being weakened through fasting and our flesh failing of fatness is the condition God brings upon us so that we cry out in our time of need to be delivered from ourselves, and none of those bones are broken in the life of Christ to typify for us today that the foundation which bones represent of the body of Christ which God is building will prevail, and the gates of hell that want to break those bones will not succeed.

Psa 22:17  I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

Joh 19:36  For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The fatness which must fail in our life is the spirit that says we are rich and increased with good and have no need of anything, when Christ tells us otherwise when He says we need a physician all the time working in this body of death from which we are being delivered day by day.

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Mar 2:17  When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

When we repent of our own works that we don’t initially give God the credit for accomplishing, we are letting go of the fatness which we thought was the righteousness of Christ within us. Our own deceitful and desperately wicked hearts (Jer 17:9) have to be tried in fire [trial of our faith is precious (Rev 3:18, 1Pe 1:7)] in order to acknowledge that Christ is working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Mat 7:22-23, Eph 1:11). This experience of being rebuked of the Lord is what is needed if we are going to be able to spiritually see in this age and be led of the spirit to go wherever the Lord would have us go.

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Psa 109:25 I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

When we are obedient to God and are led by the holy spirit, then everyone loves us, right? I speak as a fool, because that is when “I became also a reproach unto them” and when “they looked upon me they shaked their heads”. That is when we know that we are being hated of all men for His name’s sake, which is what Christ said will happen to those who are called and chosen and being strengthened in this age to endure unto the end (Mat 24:13) to be amongst those who will be faithful and able to go “whithersoever he goeth” all to the glory of God.

Psa 109:26 Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:
Psa 109:27 That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.

Now the words “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy” take on a much more meaningful tone when we realize the sovereignty of God in all things who is demonstrating through the weak of the world how great His mercy is, a mercy for which we cry out again and again. “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy” (Heb 5:7-9). God helps us by chastening us and scourging us. Then we learn obedience by the things we suffer to the end that we can save the rest of the world with Christ who is going to save all mankind.

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Rev 19:16  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

“That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.” is being spoken by Joseph’s mouth to his brothers when he says these words in these verses of Genesis.

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Psa 109:28  Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. 

Psa 109:29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

We are called to a blessing, and God has told us, as we saw last week, that in order for us to be partakers of those blessings in this age and the next, we will be need to be cursed on that tree with Christ where people will rise up against us and curse us. “Let them curse” for our refusing to run with them “to the same excess of riot” that is becoming more and more excessive in this Godless age in which we live. What Christ tells us to do is “but bless thou” and “rejoice” inasmuch as you are partakers of his suffering in this age, receiving his grace upon grace that is teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.

1Pe 3:8  Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
1Pe 3:9  Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

1Pe 4:4  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

Luk 6:28  Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

Joh 1:16  And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Yes, “Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame” but especially the enemy within my own heart which have to die daily and come to see that I am an unprofitable servant who has only “done that which was our duty to do”.

Luk 17:10  So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Confusion covers us when we are being blinded by our sins, and that spirit is being sent by the Lord as well and plays an important part in bringing us to our wits’ end in this age if we are being judged of God today.

2Co 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.

1Ki 22:22  And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.

Psa 83:16  Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
Psa 83:17  Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: [Joh 12:24]

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved [scarcely is the condition that God plans to save us in so that there is no boasting in the event that is accomplished by grace and faith. It will be narrow, but it will be certain, and it will be ALL to the glory of God], where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Being clothed with shame and covered with our own confusion as with a mantle or garment is what this sinful flesh is all about: it is marred in the hand of the Potter and needs to be destroyed in order to make something permanent and glorious. Adam and Eve in their naked condition symbolize sin that needs to be covered by the blood of Christ, and the righteousness of Christ is likened unto the covering of that sacrifice that was made for them both, so that their shame [our shame] can be covered.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Gen 3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. [aprons symbolize our own works of righteousness which are as filthy rags (Isa 64:6)]

Gen 3:21  Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. [symbolizes Christ’s works of righteousness within us that must be found if we are to be partakers of the blessed and holy first resurrection (Php 3:8-11, 2Co 5:21)]

Psa 109:30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
Psa 109:31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

Sin is at the door, wanting to rule over us and we can and should “greatly praise the LORD with [our] my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude” because “he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul“.

Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

We are those poor in spirit (Mat 5:3) as we discussed – by His hand – and must pray that the Lord will always keep us mindful of our weak state that should never be boasting in anything, knowing that it is the Lord who is working all things according to the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11) including the shedding abroad in our hearts of His love (Rom 5:5) so that “all things [can] work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28, Rom 8:32).

We should be content today because God has told us that He will never leave or forsake us (Deu 31:6) and Christ will be the author and finisher of our faith (Php 1:6). That is why “I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth” and that is the reason “I will praise him among the multitude“.

“Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy”. Help us, O LORD our God: and save us according to thy mercy.

]]> Isaiah 29:9-16 – The Lord Has Poured Out Upon You the Spirit of Deep Sleep, and Hath Closed Your Eyes https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/isaiah-299-16-the-lord-has-poured-out-upon-you-the-spirit-of-deep-sleep-and-hath-closed-your-eyes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=isaiah-299-16-the-lord-has-poured-out-upon-you-the-spirit-of-deep-sleep-and-hath-closed-your-eyes Sun, 09 Sep 2018 04:18:35 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=17124
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Isaiah 29:9-16 - The Lord Has Poured Out Upon You the Spirit of Deep Sleep, and Hath Closed Your Eyes - Discussion

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Isa 29:9-16 - The Lord Has Poured Out Upon You The Spirit of Deep Sleep, and Hath Closed Your Eyes

Isa 29:9  Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
Isa 29:10  For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
Isa 29:11  And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
Isa 29:12  And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
Isa 29:13  Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Isa 29:14  Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
Isa 29:15  Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
Isa 29:16  Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

Our study today is addressed to you and to me, and the Lord begins by asking us to simply stop and consider just how foolish and stupid it is when we lean to our own rebellious understanding and our own strength:

Isa 29:9  Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

"Stay yourselves and wonder..." 'Stop for a moment and consider, cry out', but the Truth is we all come into this world spiritually blind as a bat. We are all first born blind before we are given eyes to see or ears that hear the meaning of the words of spirit and life, and it is all so "that the works of God should be manifest[ed] in [us]", because spiritually speaking we are all, as "the first man, Adam", we are this blind man of John 9, and we are all part of "the blind... multitudes" before we are given eyes that see and ears that hear:

Joh 9:1  And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Christ here tells us very plainly that He spoke in parables to keep the multitudes from seeing with their eyes and hearing with their ears. He tells us that if He had given them understanding of His words they would have been converted, and He would have healed them of that spiritual blindness, and that simply was not what Christ had come to do at that time. What Christ had come to do at that time was to give them eyes which did not see and ears which could not hear "lest they should be converted and [lest He should] heal them". All His physical healings and miracles were just types and shadows of the much "greater [spiritual] things than these" which you and I have been given to do by showing those He gives eyes to see and ears to hear "the things of the spirit".

Joh 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Even Christ's disciples could not at first see or hear His message or the spirit that is His Words:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

I have stated that these words of Isaiah 29 are for us. How do I know these words are addressed to you and to me? The answer is that I simply believe what Jesus told the adversary:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The adversary would have us to believe this prophecy must surely be addressed to some foolish and stupid people way back in the days of Isaiah, and surely they have no application to a relatively wise and good person such as you or me.

Gill's commentary is typical of how most commentaries deal with these verses, and there is no hint of understanding the meaning of "man... [must] live by every word of God" as it applies to these words here in Isaiah 29.

Here is what Gill has to say about these verses:

Clark's commentary has the same limited understanding of the audience for whom these words are intended:

Guzik has the same take:

So it is with commentary after commentary. The words of the prophets "were spoken in the times of Ahaz... the people to whom this address is made were as stupid as others" around them "in the time of Ahaz". "The prophet stands amazed at the stupidity of the greatest part of the Jewish nation", and "the spiritual stupor of Jerusalem" is all God has given the commentators of Babylon to get out of these words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God. They simply have not be given the understanding of Christ's doctrine:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The commentaries for the most part do not believe these words of Isaiah, which we are plainly told are proceeding out of the mouth of God, apply to "man [Greek: anthropos, mankind - who, we are told:] shall... live by... every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God".

Being blinded to these words of Christ, all the words of the Old Testament are therefore, for the most part, nothing more than a mere history lesson to "this people". Yet no one can deny that Christ quoted the prophets as if they were very relevant to His day.

Let's compare these words of Isaiah to Christ's own words:

Isa 29:10  For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

Now notice how Christ applies these very words to the people of His own day. These were the very people to whom He was teaching and preaching until this very day:

Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Christ tells us that Isaiah is prophesying here of His words being hidden from the very multitudes of Christians who come to Him and appropriate His name but have not been given eyes that see or ears that hear His message, and this is not the first time Isaiah has told us of our own natural state. We read this same message in:

Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Christ quoted Isaiah word for word because He knew Isaiah's words apply in every generation of mankind. He knew, as He told the adversary, that it was indeed all men who must "live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Mat 4:4).

John tells us those Jews who believed on Christ but could not "do the things [He said]" (Luk 6:46) were also spiritually blind. It was "those Jews which believed on Him" who "want[ed] to kill [Him]". It had to be so because God Himself had so spiritually blinded them that even all of Christ's miracles were not sufficient to open their eyes or their ears to see or hear what the scriptures had to say about their own Savior:

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

Christ's words "You seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you" are addressed "to those Jews which believed on Him". We first 'believe in Him' while we are yet in Babylon. Those words were written to let you and me know they are speaking of you and me.  If mankind must live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, and if Christ "[is] the Word", then you and I must live by these words here in John 8, and indeed we all have done so, because we have all denied our Lord in our own time, and in denying Christ, it is we who have helped to crucify Him, fulfilling His word:

Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

It is only in "look[ing] behind [us]", that we see that we have indeed crucified our Lord, and we have all lived by these very words:

Isa 29:11  And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
Isa 29:12  And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

It was only yesterday that you and I thought Christ spoke in parables for the purpose of opening the eyes of the multitudes who "believed on Him" (Joh 8:30-31). It was only yesterday that we were all born into a dying body of rebellious flesh as spiritually blind as a bat. We think we see clearly until the Lord reveals to us, as we look back, just how blind we were and how His words truly were "a book that is sealed" to us at that time.

Then the Lord begins to drag us out of Babylon. God's people all "come out of [Babylon]":

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

Can you remember thinking, "I am so thankful that I came out of Babylon so I do not have to partake of her sins or receive of her plagues? Those words are obviously not for me. Those words are for those who have blasphemed God and who did not repent when the Lord poured out His wrath upon them. These particular words proceeding out of the mouth of God are not to be lived by me. I am so happy that I am not appointed unto wrath, but to salvation."

That is exactly what I once thought, and it is true:

1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

But does 1Thessalonians 5:9 say we have never experienced God's wrath? No, that verse does not say we have never experienced the wrath of God. This is the fact of that question:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Then there is also this verse in:

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

"The seven last plagues... fill up the wrath of God", and the last two verses of this 15th chapter of Revelation tell us:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

At what point are we "not appointed... to wrath"? Is there anyone who has never experienced the wrath of God? If it is true that "He that believes not the Son... the wrath of God abides on him", then the wrath of God has been upon all men, as we are all unbelievers by virtue of first being "sinners... in Adam",  who has brought death to all men.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

The fact is that "no man [can] enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels [are] fulfilled". Clearly the sum of God's Word teaches us that it is we who must live by every word of God and that we must fulfill the seven plagues of the seven angels before we can enter the temple of God, and then it becomes true that "we are not appointed unto wrath".

However, we do not just naturally see ourselves as being in Babylon being ruled by a "great whore". Instead this is what we say of ourselves at that point of our experience:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Being ruled over by a harlot we are "one flesh" with her:

1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

We are all "one flesh" with the great whore for many years of our lives, and we are not even aware of how far from our Lord we are, and this is what we are unwittingly telling ourselves at that time:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

"That day" is the day of judgment and the day of the Lord's wrath upon the kingdom of our old man, and "that day" is at this very moment "upon the house of God":

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

It is an experience which is "common to all men", and those are words we have all lived as Isaiah continues to tell us just how true it is that the Lord has poured out upon us the spirit of deep sleep and has closed our eyes to this extent:

Isa 29:13  Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

"Taught by the precept of man" is just another way of saying, "Their fear toward me is taught through the false doctrines of men." Doctrines like the immortality of the soul and its sister doctrine of eternal torment in eternal literal flames of fire name just two of the two hundred million such false blasphemous doctrines of men.

Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

Rev 9:16  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

The "fear of [God] taught by the precept of men", has always been the prevailing doctrine of the Lord's people, but it will not always be so because:

Isa 29:14  Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

What we are being told is that our deception and our spiritual blindness is a part of "a marvellous work" which the Lord is working within us by causing wisdom to cease and by hiding understanding from us as our Lord told us He is doing:

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear) unto this day.

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: [His "marvellous work among this people", Isa 29:14]
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

The Lord declares to us "His own" sovereignty over "all things", from Genesis to Revelation, yet we seek to hide deep our counsel from the Lord by convincing ourselves that He does not see all we do, and we think that our "darkness", our deception proves He does not exist or that He cannot or will not judge us for all of our evil works:

Isa 29:15  Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

Nevertheless the Truth is still the Truth, and the fact of the matter is:

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

What this tells us is that even our thoughts: "Who sees us? and who knows us" ...are from the Lord. In this same chapter of Proverbs we are even told:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

In case we might think that there is surely some exception to God's sovereign work, we are explicitly told, "Yes, even the wicked [are 'made for Himself'] for the day of evil."

I confess before you today, that I am constantly intrigued by how the teachers and commentators on the payroll of the "great whore" deal with such clear and plain statements, and I find myself uncontrollably searching out how they go about denying such straightforward statements as Proverbs 16:4. So I read one commentator I have often read before, and for a moment I actually thought I had found a Babylonian commentator who acknowledged the Truth of these words. Just listen to Gill's comments on this 4th verse of Proverbs 16:

To which I said, 'Amen brother Gill!' I could hardly believe my eyes as I read how this man seemed to be getting the point which these words clearly convey. It seemed impossible that a man of impeccable Babylonian credentials such as Gill could have such an appreciation for the total sovereignty of God, but here it is before our very eyes, and we all just read it for ourselves. Mr. Gill acknowledges, "all things are appointed by the Lord, respecting the temporal estate of men; their birth, and the time of it, with all the circumstances attending it; the place of their abode, their calling, station of life, and usefulness; all adverse and prosperous dispensations; their death, with all the events leading to it: and so likewise all things respecting their spiritual and eternal estate; the choice of them to salvation; their redemption by Christ; the time of his coming, sufferings, and death, and the circumstances thereof; the conversion of God's elect, the time, place, and means; these are all according to the purpose of God; as are also all their times of affliction, temptation, desertion, and of joy and comfort. In a word, the final state of all men, good and bad, is fixed by the Lord; and all this is "for himself..."

Wow! That is incredible! It appears we have found a man of great integrity who is willing to stand on the Word of God, at least concerning this one doctrine, and this man is in Babylon.

Did not the Lord tell us:

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
Isa 3:2  The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
Isa 3:3  The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.

Do not these three verses tell us that not one doctrine of Babylon is free from the stain of her unfaithfulness? Do not these three verses tell us that not one mighty man, one man of war, one  judge, one prophet, one prudent man, ancient man, captain, honorable man, counselor, artificer, not one eloquent man and not one Babylonian commentator of the scriptures has any of the stay of bread and stay of water in him? Yes, indeed, that is what we just read. So what are we to make of Mr. Gill's commentary asserting the total sovereignty of God over "all the events... all things respecting their spiritual and eternal estate; the choice of them to salvation; their redemption by Christ; the time of his coming, sufferings, and death, and the circumstances thereof; the conversion of God's elect, the time, place, and means; these are all according to the purpose of God; as are also all their times of affliction, temptation, desertion, and of joy and comfort. In a word, the final state of all men, good and bad, is fixed by the Lord; and all this is "for himself..."? The answer is to be found in how Mr. Gill contradicts himself in his comments on the last half of Proverbs 16:4.

Quoting Gill's Commentary:

1Co 16:22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

"Nor does God make men wicked"? Who will you believe, Mr. Gill, and all of Babylon, or will you believe God who said:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

And who says:

Pro 20:24  Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

This is how the holy spirit prepares our hearts to receive the words of Romans 9:

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

"The creature was made subject to vanity". So I ask, "Is Mr. Gill to be believed when he tells us: "nor did or does God make men wicked; he made man upright, and he [man] has made himself wicked"??? Was man "made subject to vanity" or did God make man upright? Both cannot be true!

The Bible teaches us that Gill was right before he contradicted himself: "all the events... all things respecting their spiritual and eternal estate; the choice of them to salvation; their redemption by Christ; the time of his coming, sufferings, and death, and the circumstances thereof; the conversion of God's elect, the time, place, and means; these are all according to the purpose of God; as are also all their times of affliction, temptation, desertion, and of joy and comfort. In a word, the final state of all men, good and bad, is fixed by the Lord; and all this is "for himself..."?

It seems impossible that any man can make the statement, "In a word, the final state of all men, good and bad, is fixed by the Lord;" and in  the same breath declare: "nor did or does God make men wicked; he made man upright, and he has made himself wicked; and, being so, God may justly appoint him to damnation for his wickedness, in doing which he glorifies his justice."

Such is the forked tongue of our father the devil, whose work by God's design and plan, that we seek to please ourselves and to twist the Lord's words into the idols of our own hearts:

Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

These verses may appear to say that the Lord deceives that prophet because that prophet has set up his own idols of his heart, but the sum of God's word reveals over and over and over again that the Lord has all of our days "written in His book before there were any of them:"

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

How possibly does one force the doctrine: "nor did or does God make men wicked; he made man upright, and he has made himself wicked;" into Psalms 139:16? To do so is to turn all the Word of God upside down and backwards, making God's will and the efficacy of the cross subject to our own fabled 'free will'.

The Lord has a solution for the sad state in which He, by His own design, has placed His dying creatures. As we have been told:

Isa 29:14  Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

It is futile to attempt to hide our heart's idols from the Lord and to think He does not see what is in our hearts:

Isa 29:15  Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

This is what will become of all of the "idols of [our] hearts":

Isa 29:16  Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

In other words, we and the whole world can agree with Mr. Gill and ascribe our sins to ourselves all we want, but the Truth will still remain the Truth, which very clearly stated is:

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

And as "every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven" will do, we will also take from the New Testament to make His Truth known:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing [I am made by God "wicked... for the day of evil"]: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Mat 13:52  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

That is our study for today. Next week, if the Lord wills, we will find that since we, and all men, were "made... wicked... for the day of evil", the Lord will also make us "that erred in spirit [to] come to understanding... and [to] learn doctrine".

Isa 29:17  Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
Isa 29:18  And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
Isa 29:19  The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 29:20  For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
Isa 29:21  That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
Isa 29:22  Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
Isa 29:23  But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
Isa 29:24  They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

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