The Two Works of Scripture, Part 3: The Judgment of Works

[Study Aired May 5, 2026]

Recap and Orientation

Parts 1 and 2 have established the two categories of works and the passage from one to the other. The works of the natural order — dead works produced by the Adamic nature, whether profane, moral, or religious — cannot justify because they proceed from a source in which the quickening spirit has not yet come. The works wrought in God — the works of the spiritual order produced through the indwelling Spirit — cannot be manufactured by human effort but must be received in the Worker who takes up residence in the believer. The work of God is believing; the fruit of faith is works wrought in God; the apparent tension between Paul and James dissolves when we recognize two kinds of works rather than two competing bases of salvation.

Part 3 now addresses the final element of the doctrine: the universal judgment of works. Scripture teaches plainly that every work will be brought into account, tested, and rewarded or burned. Far from contradicting the doctrine of justification by faith, this judgment vindicates the apostolic pattern with finality. Every work that was wrought in God endures; every work that was wrought in the flesh burns — regardless of the label under which it was performed.

The Universal Judgment of Works

The principle that every work will be judged is not a New Testament novelty — it is the conclusion of the wisest man in Israel: For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil (Ecc 12:14). Paul grounds the same universal principle in the character of God Himself: Who will render to every man according to his deeds (Rom 2:6). These are not threatening words for those who have entered the rest of Hebrews 4 and ceased from their own works — they are the promise that what the indwelling Worker has produced will not be forgotten. Every work will be brought into account. Scripture speaks of two judgments in which this accounting takes place.

Of the believer’s judgment Paul writes: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2Co 5:10). The Greek word rendered “judgment seat” is bema (G968) — not a criminal court but a raised platform of accounting and award, the same word used for the athletic victor’s platform where prizes were given to those who had run and prevailed. The Corinthians knew the bema as a specific stone structure in their own forum, the very platform before which Paul had stood (Acts 18:12-17). When Paul invokes it here he is not describing a trial of condemnation — for there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1) — but an accounting of what each believer built, where every work is disclosed according to its substance and rewarded or lost accordingly.

Of the unbeliever’s judgment John writes: And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:12, 15). The unbeliever’s works are the evidence, not the cause, of his exclusion. His works belong entirely to the natural order because he never entered the spiritual; no Worker has indwelt him; nothing he produced belonged to the living order.

These two judgments together, when understood, do not threaten the doctrine of justification by faith — they complete it. Works are the final witness of what faith has or has not produced. The fire does not determine who is in Christ; it discloses what was wrought in those who were, and the absence of works wrought in God in those who were not.

1 Corinthians 3: The Testing of Believers’ Works

The most searching passage on the judgment of believers’ works is Paul’s architectural image in 1 Corinthians 3. Having established that the foundation of the Christian life is Christ alone — For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Co 3:11) — Paul turns to the materials each believer builds upon that foundation.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire (1Co 3:12-15).

Six materials in two categories. Gold, silver, and precious stones share one property: they endure fire. Wood, hay, and stubble share the opposite: they burn. The distinction is not in how a work appears to observers but in where it originated. Two men may preach the same sermon — one from the flesh, one from the indwelling Spirit — and only the fire of that day will reveal which was gold and which was stubble. Gold, silver, and precious stones are works wrought in God; wood, hay, and stubble are works of the natural order produced by the flesh of a believer whose foundation is Christ but whose materials are mixed.

The sobering implication is that a regenerate believer can build much of his life with the natural order’s materials. Paul names this condition plainly in the verses immediately before the fire-test: I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ… for ye are yet carnal (1Co 3:1-3). In Christ — the foundation is secure. Yet carnal — the materials are mixed. The flesh and the Spirit are contrary the one to the other within the same believer (Gal 5:17), and Christ Himself warned that the two cannot be mixed without cost — no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out (Mat 9:17) — for the walk determines which produces the day’s labor. A believer who walks according to the flesh, even while resting on Christ for salvation, accumulates wood, hay, and stubble — works that bear the believer’s name but were not wrought by Christ. On the day of manifestation the fire speaks, and these materials return to the ash from which their nature always belonged.

What belongs to the natural order returns to ash; what was wrought in God cannot be burned away, for it was never the believer’s own production to begin with. The Spirit confirms this through John: Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them (Rev 14:13). The labors cease at death; the works follow. Works wrought in God cannot be consumed by fire — they are His, and what is His endures the fire.

This evaluation is not only a future event. To each of the seven churches Christ declares the same opening word: I know thy works (Rev 2:2, 2:9, 2:13, 2:19, 3:1, 3:8, 3:15). The Worker who dwells within is already examining what is being built — not with condemnation for those whose foundation is Christ, but with the clear-eyed knowledge of one who sees the difference between gold and stubble long before the fire speaks. The day of manifestation will not surprise Him; it will confirm what He has known all along.

He himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire (1Co 3:15). The believer’s person is preserved because his foundation is Christ; his reward is lost because his materials were flesh. The foundation is not in jeopardy; the building upon the foundation is. The question every day poses is not whether Christ is the foundation — for those who are in Him, He is — but whether today’s labor will prove gold or stubble when the fire speaks.

Matthew 7: Religious Works Rejected

If 1 Corinthians 3 warns the believer about materials that burn though the foundation endures, Matthew 7 warns the professing Christian about works that will be named “iniquity” though performed in Christ’s very name. This is the devastating capstone of the doctrine of dead works.

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 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? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (Mat 7:21-23).

The passage is devastating because the works in view are not immorality. They are not works of the flesh in the Galatians 5 sense. They are religious works of the most impressive kind — prophesying, casting out devils, performing wonderful works — and they are performed in Christ’s name. The name is invoked; the vocabulary is Christian; the outward shape is ministry. Yet Christ calls the whole catalog iniquity and names the workers as those whom He never knew.

The category of dead works therefore includes more than moral failure and more than ceremonial law-keeping. It includes religious ministry, spiritual gifts, and miraculous deeds performed by the old man in the flesh, even when the name of Christ is borne upon them. The reason Christ gives is telling: I never knew you. The issue is not the label on the work but the relationship from which the work proceeds. Where Christ has not known the worker — where no indwelling, no yielding to the Worker within has ever taken place — the works, however impressive, are dead works. They return to ash before the throne no matter how many they appeared to bless.

The warning functions as a flare to every generation of the church. Religious activity is not proof of life in the Spirit. Even miraculous activity is not proof of life in the Spirit. Sincere invocation of Christ’s name is not proof of life in the Spirit. The only proof is the Worker’s indwelling presence, manifesting in works wrought in God rather than merely wrought under His name. The question this passage leaves with every reader is not whether the work impresses observers but whether the Worker knows the one performing it. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (2Co 5:17). Apart from that new creation, the most spectacular labor is still the old Adam’s — belonging to the natural order and dead.

Matthew 25: Works as Evidence

The sheep-and-goats scene in Matthew 25 has been taken by some as proof that salvation itself turns upon works — that acts of mercy toward Christ’s brethren are the basis of entrance to the kingdom. A careful reading reveals the opposite: works are the evidence of kingdom-belonging, not its basis. A still more careful reading reveals that the sheep and the goats are not two permanently separate groups of people but the two natures within each of us — the old man and the new — brought at last to their final separation before the King.

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats (Mat 25:32). The shepherd does not bring two separate flocks from two separate fields. He divides what was gathered together — one assembly, two natures within it. The old man and the new man have coexisted in the believer throughout the walk. The day of judgment is the day of their final separation, when the King at last divides within each of us what the fire of 1 Corinthians 3 has already been testing: what was wrought in God and what was wrought in the flesh.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt 25:34). The kingdom is prepared — and prepared from the foundation of the world, before any of the works in question could have been performed. The sheep-nature inherits what has been laid up for it; it does not purchase the inheritance with its deeds.

The list of deeds that follows — feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned — is confirmatory evidence rather than meritorious cause. Observe the response of the sheep-nature: Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? (Mat 25:37). What was recounted to them is not recognized as what they stand on before God. They are surprised by it. Works wrought in God are not performed to earn anything. They flow naturally from the indwelling Christ, the way a branch bears fruit — not by striving but because of what it is connected to. They are the evidence that the Shepherd’s Spirit produced in His sheep the very compassion they exhibited toward Christ’s brethren — as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (Mat 25:40).

The goat-nature, conversely, is set aside not because it failed to perform a certain quantity of works but because no works wrought in God ever appeared in it. The goat-nature belongs entirely to the natural order — the labor of the old man who never received the Worker, who never entered the rest, who never bore the fruit that would testify to Christ’s indwelling. When the book is opened there is nothing on the spiritual side because no spiritual life ever proceeded from it. The age-lasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Mat 25:41) is the appointed chastisement for what the natural order produced — not the final destination of a person but the consuming judgment of the old man within, whose works return to ash as all natural things must: I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth (Eze 28:18), and what remains of the natural becomes ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts (Mal 4:3). The fire does not end the story; it clears the ground for what the spiritual order will walk upon.

This is how the universal judgment of works harmonizes with salvation by grace through faith. Works do not save, but works reveal whether the indwelling Worker has been at work. The tree is known by its fruit; the man is known by his works; the root of each being whether the old Adam still reigns or the Last Adam has entered in to work. The separation the King performs is not a sorting of persons into permanent categories — it is the final, decisive division within the whole man between what was natural and what was spiritual, what was dead and what was living, what was the old Adam’s and what was the Last Adam’s.

Conclusion: The Worker Glorified

The two works of Scripture, rightly seen, declare a single testimony: Christ is the Worker, and every valid work is finally His. The old man’s labor, however religious, was dead works because the source was the natural man as God created him — a living soul subject to vanity by God’s own purpose (Rom 8:20), a natural shadow ordained to foreshadow the spiritual reality to come. The new man’s labor is living work because the source is the quickening spirit, and God Himself worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Php 2:13). The shadow did not fail; it succeeded perfectly in revealing that a Worker must come who could accomplish in His people what they could never accomplish on their own.

This is not a narrative of rescue from calamity but the unfolding of a sovereign design. Humanity was not created in spiritual perfection and afterward corrupted; humanity was created a living soul, earthy, natural, subject to vanity by the One who subjected it in hope (Rom 8:20-21; 1Co 15:45-47). The first Adam’s inability was not defect but design, for that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual (1 Cor 15:46). The very dead works of the old man served the plan by making visible the need and glory of the Last Adam, the quickening spirit, the living Worker who would dwell in His people and accomplish through them the works prepared before the foundation of the world.

The apparent tensions in Scripture’s testimony concerning works—between faith and works, between Paul and James, between grace and judgment—dissolve when we see that Scripture speaks with one voice about the natural and the spiritual. Faith is the entrance; works are the manifestation; grace is the foundation; and judgment is the final disclosure of which works were wrought in God and which were not. The gold, silver, and precious stones endure because they were Christ’s working; the wood, hay, and stubble burn because they were the flesh’s labor even in a believer’s life. The religious works of Matthew 7 are rejected because the Worker never knew the worker. The sheep-and-goats catalog of Matthew 25 vindicates the indwelling Christ in those who belong to Him and exposes His absence in those who do not. The fire reveals what the day has hidden, and the Worker is glorified in His works through His people.

For those in Christ, the ancient burden has been lifted. We do not labor to become accepted; we labor because we have been accepted. We do not strive to build righteousness; we walk in the good works prepared for us. We do not work in order to become God’s workmanship; we are His workmanship, and therefore we work. The weariness of dead works gives way to the rest of the one who has entered in—For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his (Heb 4:10). The old Adam has ceased. The Last Adam works, and the works that now appear in the believer’s life are no longer the monument of self-effort but the testimony of the indwelling Christ, from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things (Rom 11:36).

Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual… For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (1Co 15:46; Eph 2:10).

The Two Works of Scripture: Part 2, The Work of God and Works Wrought in God

[Study Aired April 29, 2026]

Recap and Orientation

In Part 1 we established that Scripture recognizes two categories of works that no natural effort can produce — the one proceeding from the old man, the other from the indwelling Spirit. The natural man, proceeding from the living soul rather than the quickening spirit, produces only “dead works” — a category broad enough to include moral evil, works of the flesh, religious activity, and even the commanded ordinances of the Mosaic law, all of which fail to justify the man who performs them. Romans 7 disclosed the personal crisis: the will is present but the power is absent, and the cry of the chapter is for deliverance, not improvement.

Part 2 now turns to the resolution. If the old man cannot work the works of God, can the works of God be worked at all? The answer Scripture gives is both simple and staggering: yes — but only when the Worker Himself is received. The work of God is believing on the One whom God has sent. From that single act of receiving the Son, a new order of works begins — no longer originated by the natural man, no longer offered as the basis of our acceptance before God, but wrought in God through the indwelling Spirit.

The Hinge: What Is the Work of God?

The decisive question is asked in the sixth chapter of John. A multitude, having eaten of the loaves and sought Christ across the sea, approached Him with a question every natural man eventually asks: What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? (John 6:28). The question presupposes that God has works He desires performed, that men are capable of performing them, and that earnest labor is the path to God’s approval. It is the native religion of the sons of Adam, offered sincerely.

Christ’s answer dismantles the premise entirely: This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent (John 6:29). The singular — work, not works — arrests us. And the content — believing, not laboring — overturns the question’s assumption. The work God requires is not something man originates and offers to God, but something God does in man when man receives the Son. It is the moment the laborer ceases striving and receives the One in whom all of God’s working dwells.

Paul develops this same truth in Romans 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (Rom 4:4-5). Two mutually exclusive categories: the one who works and earns debt, and the one who believes and receives righteousness. Abraham is the exhibit: For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Rom 4:2-3). Paul’s argument is not against works as such but against the works of the old man offered to God apart from faith in the One whom He has sent.

The same principle appears in Romans 9:30-32: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. Israel labored; the Gentiles believed. Israel sought by works; the Gentiles received by faith. The paradox exposes the nature of the natural order’s labor: the more it is pursued as the basis of standing before God, the more it confirms the flesh’s inability to attain the spiritual.

Titus 3:5 places the same truth under the gospel’s own heading: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The verse speaks twice — first to exclude what cannot save, then to name what does: not our righteous works, but the regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The natural excluded; the spiritual introduced. And what the spiritual introduces is not less activity but differently sourced activity — for Paul declares in the same letter the very purpose of Christ’s purifying work: Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14). Christ did not ransom a people from the natural order’s bondage in order to leave them in idleness; He ransomed them in order to purify them into a people whose very character is zeal for works wrought in God. The regenerated man does not labor less; he labors differently — not by his own strength but according to the working of the One who works in him mightily (Col 1:29)

Hebrews 4: Ceasing from One’s Own Works

Before we can consider the works wrought in God, we must consider the cessation Scripture says must come first. Hebrews 4 develops the Sabbath typology in a way that directly applies to works. For we which have believed do enter into rest… There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his (Heb 4:3, 9-10).

The Greek word for “rest” in verse 9 is sabbatismos — a sabbath-keeping. The rest is a cessation, not an inactivity. It is the deliberate laying down of one’s own labor in order that another’s work may proceed. The pattern is Genesis 2. God finished His works; God rested; God’s rest was entered by all who participated in His finished work. Under the old covenant the weekly Sabbath commemorated this pattern as external sign — a natural shadow; under the new covenant the believer enters the reality the sign declared — the spiritual substance. Colossians 2:16-17 confirms the typology explicitly: Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. The weekly day was shadow; the rest in Christ is substance.

Observe the precise parallel in Hebrews 4:10: he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. The believer’s cessation is like God’s cessation. God did not cease working because He was tired; He ceased because His work was finished. Likewise the believer ceases not from all activity but from his own works — the self-originating labor of the old man offered as the basis of his standing before God.” What remains when that ceases is not idleness but a different order of labor — the works of Christ wrought through the believer by the Spirit.

This is why the writer issues the solemn exhortation: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (Heb 4:11). The only labor now appropriate is the labor of entering the rest. Every other labor, however sincere, returns the believer to the condition of the natural order from which Christ has delivered him. The Sabbath shadow ceased; the rest it signified remains, and the believer enters it by the cessation of his own works in order that the Worker may proceed unhindered.

This is the missing link between Part 1 and the spiritual works about to be considered. The works of the spiritual do not add themselves to the works of the natural; they proceed out of the cessation of the natural man’s labors. The old man must stop before the new Man can be seen. The burden of self-effort must be laid down before the yoke of Christ can be received, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt 11:28-30). The invitation to rest is the invitation to cease our dead works and receive the Worker whose labor is life.

Works Wrought in God

Our Lord draws the contrast in the third chapter of John with a single statement: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God (John 3:21). The determining question concerning any deed is not what it looks like but where it was wrought. Two men may perform identical outward acts — one wrought in the flesh, the other wrought in God — and the first is dead while the second is living. Works wrought in God proceed from the quickening spirit rather than the living soul, manifesting the operation of the One who dwells within.

Jesus Himself, in the days of His flesh, modeled the pattern perfectly: The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10). Christ did not labor as the first Adam labored; He labored as the Last Adam, a quickening spirit, in whom the Father’s working was perfectly manifest. And He declared that the same pattern would extend to all who believe: 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 (John 14:12).

The purpose of these works is not the believer’s own credit but the Father’s glory. Our Lord declared plainly: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matt 5:16). Works wrought in God are not performed for standing before God — that is already settled by faith. They are performed, or rather borne, so that the watching world sees not the believer’s effort but the Father’s life shining through him. The source of the work determines its direction: what proceeds from the old man points to the old man; what proceeds from the indwelling Worker points to the Father who sent Him.

The phrase “greater works” has stumbled many readers. The key is to let Christ interpret His own word. In Luke 7:28 He uses the same Greek term — meizon (G3187) — to declare that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, the greatest prophet born of women. This is not a comparison of individual ability; it is a declaration of order. The least of the spiritual surpasses the greatest of the natural, because the spiritual order is categorically greater than the natural. That same word governs John 14:12. The works believers do are greater not because they exceed Christ’s miracles in individual power — none has raised a Lazarus or stilled a sea — but because they belong to a higher order entirely. They are works wrought in God, proceeding from the indwelling Spirit rather than from the natural man, and what the Spirit produces belongs to the spiritual order. Christ’s ascension inaugurated the sending of the Spirit, who now works from within countless members of His body across every nation and age. The scope is greater; the order is greater; the source is the same indwelling Worker whose presence Pentecost multiplied into the members of His body. The “greater” is the greatness of the spiritual over the natural — the same greatness by which the least in the kingdom exceeds the greatest born of women.

God Working Within

Paul develops the indwelling Worker doctrine with a specific Greek verb that rewards careful attention. 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. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13). The believer’s working out flows entirely from God’s working in. The verb rendered “worketh” is energeo (Strong’s G1754) — to operate effectively, to be at work within, to produce energy from within.

The same verb converges across the apostolic letters to establish the doctrine. God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11). The power that worketh in us (Eph 3:20) is the measure of what God can accomplish beyond what we ask or think. Paul labors according to his working, which worketh in me mightily (Col 1:29). The word of God effectually worketh also in you that believe (1 Thess 2:13). And the writer to the Hebrews brings it to its fullest statement: Now the God of peace…make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ (Heb 13:20-21). Six witnesses to the same operative reality: God at work within, producing through His people every good work that is wellpleasing in His sight. The consistent picture is not human effort directed toward God but God’s own energy operating within the vessel He has made.

Ephesians 2:10 supplies the capstone: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. The Greek word for “workmanship” is poiema — that which is made, a crafted thing. We are not the craftsmen but the craft. We are not self-constructed moral agents; we are His workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus — a new creation, not a rehabilitated old one. The good works are before ordained — prepared by God before we walk in them, like garments laid out in advance. We do not originate these works; we walk in them.

As we saw in the Hebrew Foundation, Isaiah already declared this centuries before Paul: LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us (Isa 26:12). What the Old Testament anticipated, the New Testament now confirms in full. The acceptable works of God’s people are works God Himself has wrought in them. The Worker and the works are both His.

This transforms our relationship to labor entirely. The old man labored to become something; the new man labors because he has been made something. The old man sought acceptance through his works; the new man has acceptance and expresses it in works. The old man’s works burdened and wearied; the new man’s works flow from the Spirit’s energy and fulfill the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2). 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 (Gal 2:20). The Worker has taken up residence; the works are His.

The Unity of Faith and Works: Two Kinds, One Doctrine

Once the works of the natural order and the works wrought in God are clearly distinguished, the supposed contradiction between Paul and James resolves completely. The apostles are not teaching competing doctrines about the same category of works; they are addressing two different kinds of works.

Paul writes to the Romans: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law (Rom 3:28). The works Paul excludes from justification are the works of the natural order — the labor of the old man offered to God as the basis of standing before Him. Such works cannot justify because they cannot produce what God requires. This exclusion is absolute.

James writes to the twelve tribes scattered abroad: Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (James 2:24). The works James requires for the vindication of faith are works wrought in God — the living activity of faith that has entered into operation, the fruit that proves the tree, the evidence that Christ has taken up residence. James is not adding something else to stand on alongside what Paul establishes; James is insisting that faith itself must be alive, and living faith necessarily produces living works. What Paul calls “works” in the justification debate is a different category from what James calls “works” in the vindication debate. Same vocabulary; different referents; no contradiction.

Both apostles appeal to Abraham, and together they reveal the harmony. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Gen 15:6, quoted both in Rom 4:3 and James 2:23). Yet James asks, Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? (James 2:21). The believing was Genesis 15; the offering was Genesis 22 — separated by years. The first was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness; the second vindicated it as genuine. Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? (James 2:22). The works did not create the faith; they completed it, manifested it, proved it real.

Paul himself affirms the identical reality from his own vocabulary: For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love (Gal 5:6). Faith that works by love — the very phrase joins what human theology so often separates. The same apostle who denies that works of the law justify affirms that faith, to be genuine, must work by love. The work is not an addition to faith; it is the activity of faith, wrought in God through the indwelling Spirit. Paul writes of the Thessalonians, Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:3). Paul has no quarrel with James; he uses James’s language.

So the apostolic witness is unified. Paul and James speak of two kinds of works — the works of the natural order (which cannot justify) and works wrought in God (which manifest the faith that already justifies). What we stand on before God is faith in Christ alone; the necessary evidence is works that faith produces through the Spirit. No one is justified by the first; no one who is justified remains without the second.

The Work is His

In Part 2 we have seen that the work of God is believing on the One whom God has sent, that faith enters the Sabbath rest by ceasing from one’s own works as God did from His, that the works which follow are wrought in God rather than in the flesh, that energeo reveals the indwelling operative power of God producing what no natural strength could, and that the apparent conflict between Paul and James dissolves when we see two kinds of works rather than two competing bases of salvation. The Worker has taken up residence in the believer; the works that now appear are His.

One final dimension remains. Scripture teaches a universal judgment of works — a day when every work will be manifested, tested by fire, and either rewarded or burned. In Part 3 we will consider that judgment, the testing of believers’ works according to 1 Corinthians 3, the devastating warning of Matthew 7 concerning religious works performed in Christ’s name, the sheep-and-goats scene of Matthew 25, and the final vindication of the apostolic pattern when the Worker is glorified in His works through His people.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil 2:13)

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches” Part 2

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits”

(Pro 22:11-16)

[Study Aired December 11, 2025]

Pro 22:11  He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.
Pro 22:12  The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.
Pro 22:13  The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Pro 22:14  The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
Pro 22:15  Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Pro 22:16  He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

Last week we looked at how God’s grace or favour is to correct us in this life, to judge us, so that we forsake ungodliness and worldly lust, and understand that no one can naturally do this unless we are dragged unto Christ by our Father in heaven (Joh 6:44).

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.

We looked at how becoming a peculiar people zealous of good works (Tit 2:14) can only happen by the grace and faith of God that causes us to move with fear to the building up of the body of Christ (Heb 11:7, Eph 4:16), and is typified by Noah who “found grace^{H2580 = favour grace(-ious) pleasant precious [well-]favoured} in the eyes of the LORD”.

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.

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth [The Church, the body, the Ark (1Pe 3:20, 1Pe 3:8)], according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

God’s name is being formed within the body of Christ, by our dying daily experience (Act 27:18-19, Rom 13:11), by the death of our old man, a death that is precious unto Him (Psa 116:15, 1Co 15:31), and it is also the trial of our faith that is precious unto God, reminding us how the faith of Christ is connected to the precious dying daily process (1Pe 1:7).

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

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

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: [This is how God is making a way for a good name to be chosen within the lives of His people, rather than the riches of this earth, gold that perishes]

The following verses of (Psa 103:1-14) reveal to us the benefits^H1576 that God extends to the body of Christ so that we can be partakers of the life of Christ, his body, the church, the bride that He has promised will be prepared (Rev 19:7). What greater benefit could there be in this life than to know that God is judging us, and in the manner that is also revealed in these verses below  (Heb 11:26-27, 1Co 3:21, Psa 103:1-14), which set the tone for the verses we will look at in this section of proverbs and once again remind us that “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold”.

H1576  benefits gemûl ghem-ool’
From H1580; treatment, that is, an act (of good or ill); by implication service or requital: – + as hast served, benefit, desert, deserving, that which he hath given, recompence, reward.
Total KJV occurrences: 19

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
Heb 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, [of good or ill] or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Isa 35:4  Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence;^H1576 [of good or ill]  he will come and save you.

Psa 94:2  Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward^H1576 [of good or ill] to the proud.

Psa 103:1  A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Psa 103:2  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:^H1576 [of good or ill]
Psa 103:3  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Psa 103:4  Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Psa 103:5  Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psa 103:6  The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
Psa 103:7  He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
Psa 103:8  The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
Psa 103:9  He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
Psa 103:10  He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Psa 103:11  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
Psa 103:12  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Psa 103:13  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
Psa 103:14  For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

Pro 22:11  He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.

Initially we don’t know what “pureness of heart” is by God’s standards, as we naturally clean the outside of the cup as the first man Adam thinking this is pureness of heart before God (Mat 23:25).

Mat 23:25  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but within you are full of extortion and excess.

It is only by God’s grace in our lives that our “lips” can be purified, cleaning the cup on the inside via the chastening and scourging process that God’s elect are called unto (Heb 12:6). What an incredible blessing and honour to be judged in this age so that by “the grace of his lips the king [Christ] shall be his friend” (Isa 6:5-7, Joh 15:12-15)

Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,(Rom 7:24-25) and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.(Joh 8:36)

Joh 15:12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Joh 15:13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Joh 15:14  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.[“He that loveth pureness of heart”, 1Jn 5:2-3, Rom 5:5]
Joh 15:15  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

God is the one who is dragging us to Christ (Joh 6:44) and gives us the mindset of one who “loveth pureness of heart”, and by the grace of God and the faith of Christ we are being purified (1Jn 1:7) and realizing the gift of pureness of heart (“forget not all His benefits” of Psa 103:1-14) that makes it possible for us to be friends of our Lord (Joh 14:7).

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.

1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Pro 22:12  The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.

These verses below in (Gen 32:30-31) explain how the LORD will “preserve knowledge”, and overthrow the words of the “transgressor” within us. The wresting match that the body of Christ is in right now is against powers and principalities (Eph 6:12) which are within us, however our hope of glory within, Jesus Christ (Col 1:27), is greater that he who is in this world (1Jn 4:4, 1Jn 2:16, Eph 1:21) and He will “preserve” His saints with the “knowledge” of God that will “overthroweth” the words of the first man Adam who is the transgressor that we can continue to overcome daily [within and without] through the faith of Jesus Christ (Luk 22:32, Eph 6:16). This battle will leave us “halted upon his thigh”, bruised but victorious because of God’s mercy toward us in this age that leads us unto repentance (Gen 3:15, Rom 2:4).

Gen 32:30  And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Gen 32:31  And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted^H6760 upon his thigh.

H6760 “halted” tsâla‛
tsaw-lah’
A primitive root; probably to curve; used only as denominative from H6763 [rib, side], to limp (as if one sided): – halt.
Total KJV occurrences: 4

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

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?

Pro 22:13  The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

Pro 22:13  The lazy person says, “I can’t go {to work} now. There is a lion outside. It might kill me.”  (ERV)

The problem is not acknowledging that Satan is the god of this world, “a lion without”, the problem is denying the power of God  that tells us we are more than conquerors through Christ who can overcome what the spiritually “slothful man saith”(Rom 8:37-39).

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We will not be “slain in the streets” by Satan if we remain diligent in God’s service (Php 2:12-13) which will have us positively lying dead in the streets of that great city as God’s two witnesses in this age, dead to sin and alive in Christ (Rom 6:2, Rom 6:11, Rev 11:8-11).

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.

Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (Gal 2:20)

Pro 22:14  The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

It is miracle to come out of the false-doctrinated harlot system of this world that is likened unto “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit” and God does abhor our first man Adam, “he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein”, and consequently, we all have to go into Babylon to come out of her my people,(2Co 6:17-18), each man in his own order (1Co 15:22-23).

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 (forget not all His benefits of Psa 103:1-14),
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (forget not all His benefits of Psa 103:1-14).

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Pro 22:15  Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

I’ve applied this verse to children most of my life thinking of how our physical fathers correction did drive foolishness that was bound in our hearts far from us. Now we understand that the spiritual application is toward the sons of God who are being received of our heavenly Father, and these verses in Hebrews explain why we should be so grateful for His correction toward us, which makes it possible for us to be called sons in this age and not spiritual bastards (Heb 12:3-14, Joh 17:3).

Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Heb 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.(Tit 2:11-12)
Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Heb 12:12  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13  And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Pro 22:16  He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

If we only look at the outward appearance of a situation we won’t understand what is being said in this proverb (Joh 7:24, 1Sa 16:7). King David knew that those who oppress the poor to get increase and give to the rich will prosper in this evil world, and was even growing envious of their condition (Psa 73:3, Psa 73:17, Heb 10:25, Psa 84:10, Ecc 7:2, 1Co 15:31), until the Lord brought him to see the slippery path they were on, a path that would “surely come to want”, as opposed to the solid ground that God brings His children on when we are in the household of faith, being judged and learning to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts (Tit 2:12-13). We come to learn, over time, that He is faithful and that nothing is more valuable than the body of Christ and the discipleship that God has given us, which will preserve us in this ungodly world where we can shine as lights unto the first resurrection (Php 2:14-16, Rev 20:6).

Psa 73:3  For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Psa 73:17  Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. (Heb 10:25)

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Psa 84:10  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Ecc 7:2  It is better to go to the house of mourning,(1Co 15:31) than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

We will end our study here, being reminded of where it is that “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold” is obtained in the house of God!

Matthew 20:1–34 The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard

[Study Aired September 8, 2025]

Today we shall review the parable of the laborers in the Lord’s vineyard. In this study, we shall also take a look at Jesus foretelling of His death for the third time in this Gospel of Matthew. The latter part of the study focuses on John and James’ mother’s request for Jesus to let her children sit on His right and left side of His throne. The study ends with the healing of the two blind men that Jesus met after leaving Jericho. 

Laborers in the Vineyard

Mat 20:1  For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 
Mat 20:2  And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

The householder is God the Father who works through His son Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can say that Jesus is the householder who is inviting people to come and work in His vineyard. The vineyard signifies the house of Israel, which means the Lord’s children. 

Isa 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

The laborers represent those who are called by the Lord to help His children to know Him. Although it is the Lord who does the work of making us come to know Him, He does it through those He had called and chosen. The work of the laborers is therefore to reap the harvest. 

Luk 10:2  Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

1Co 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. 

Reaping the harvest means that the work of preparing the soil (our hearts) had been done, and the sowing and growing of the seeds had taken place. What is needed is harvesting the fruits. That means making known to God’s people what it takes to become His children.

It is instructive to note that the Lord is hiring labourers in every generation after His creation. Those hired early in the morning represent the Lord’s messengers until the time of the people of Israel in Egypt. These laborers or messengers included Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph as demonstrated in Hebrews chapter 11 which deals with the men of faith from the beginning of creation. 

Heb 11:4  By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. 
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 

Now let’s turn our attention to what these messengers were promised by the Lord – they were going to receive a penny a day. This penny a day was for their subsistence and not the reward or the joy that is set before us. Those laborers who were called last were the first to receive the penny a day. The last set of laborers are those who came to believe in Jesus Christ. This gives us a clue as to what the penny a day means. All the Lord’s messengers before Christ were not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God. 

1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 

From the word of the Lord, the penny a day therefore refers to everlasting life as shown in the following verse:

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Everlasting life is what makes us know Christ, that is, to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven.

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.   

We, His elect are the Lord’s workers who received everlasting life first. That is to say that we are given to know the only true God and Jesus Christ. All the other laborers of the Lord’s vineyard shall also be given everlasting life to come to know Christ later. This will be done through us.

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 

Mat 20:3  And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 
Mat 20:4  And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 
Mat 20:5  Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 

The laborers called on the third hour represent the Moses, Aaron, Joshua, etc. who were called during the time that the Israelites were undergoing suffering during their sojourn in Egypt. The number three represents the process of spiritual maturity through the Lord’s judgment. The people of Israel were going through suffering as part of the process the Lord uses to bring them to Himself.  

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 
Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.  

The sixth hour represents the period in the life of the people of Israel where they lived as mere men. As we are aware, the number six is the number of mankind. The sixth hour therefore signifies the time that the Israelites settled in the land of Canaan until the captivity of Babylon. The messengers sent during this period represent those sent in the sixth hour.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 
Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 

Jdg 21:25  In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 

The Lord’s messengers or laborers during this period were Gideon, Sampson, David, Isaiah, etc.

Heb 11:32  And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 
Heb 11:33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 

The number nine signifies the Lord’s judgment, and therefore the ninth hour shows us the period stretching from the time the Lord came to judge the people of Israel and Judah who were taken captives by their conquerors until the coming of John the Baptist. The Lord’s messengers or laborers during this period included Jeremiah, Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Malachi, John the Baptist, etc. 

Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 
Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 
Heb 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 

Mat 20:6  And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 
Mat 20:7  They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 

The number eleven refers to the ruin and disintegration of the perfection of the flesh. It is we, His elect, whose flesh is being destroyed by the Lord’s judgment of our old man. The laborers called at the eleventh hour therefore signify all of the Lord’s elect in every generation after John the Baptist, who are being judged in this age for the destruction of their old man or flesh. We are the last to be called to serve the Lord. When the Lord came to appoint us as His laborers, we were lying idle in the churches of this world and therefore were not worthy to be hired in the service of the Lord. However, the Lord showed us mercy  by calling and choosing us.

Mat 20:8  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 
Mat 20:9  And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 
Mat 20:10  But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 
Mat 20:11  And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 
Mat 20:12  Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 
Mat 20:13  But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? 
Mat 20:14  Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 
Mat 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?  

The laborers who were called at the eleventh hour were the first to receive a penny each. As indicated earlier, the penny a day represents the everlasting life which is what the Lord has given first to us, His elect, so that we can know Christ. All of the Lord’s laborers shall also receive this everlasting life in the fullness of time so that they can also know Christ. 

To the carnal mind, we may think that the Lord has not been fair to our co-laborers in the Lord since they had worked all day long and we, His elect, just came in the eleventh hour and received the same penny a day first. We can see that we, His elect, have been favored by the Lord. 

Joh 4:36  And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 
Joh 4:37  And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 
Joh 4:38  I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 

The truth of the matter is that the Lord has the prerogative to do what He wants to do with His creation, and therefore we cannot fault Him for favoring us, His elect.  

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. 
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 

Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. 

This verse is the conclusion of the fact that we, His elect, are first to receive everlasting life. We are therefore the few who are called and chosen in this age. What a privilege that the Lord has bestowed on us to be called His sons in this age!!

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 
1Jn 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 

Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time

Mat 20:17  And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, 
Mat 20:18  Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 
Mat 20:19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again. 

It is when we begin to know who Christ is in the spirit that we are given to know about the suffering Jesus endured resulting in the destruction of His flesh. Being raised the third day means that Jesus went through the process of spiritual maturity through judgment and is the first man to be resurrected after death. His resurrection was what made Him perfect. 

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; 

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.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 
1Co 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 

As He is, so are we. We are also going through this process of spiritual maturity through judgment as our flesh or old man is gradually being destroyed. This destruction of our flesh is what guarantees the fact that we shall be perfected when we are raised from the dead during the first resurrection. 

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 

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. 

The devil wants us to reject the idea of suffering which is the requirement for the death of our flesh and our being raised on the third day. In a way, he had been successful in deceiving us during our time in the churches of this world, when we taught that Jesus has already suffered for us and therefore we are not meant to suffer. Without suffering and death of our flesh in this age, there is no first resurrection.   

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

A Mother’s Request

Mat 20:20  Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.
Mat 20:21  And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 
Mat 20:22  But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 
Mat 20:23  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 

The mother of John and James coming to Jesus to worship Him was to present her request to Jesus regarding her two sons. She wanted her sons to sit on thrones with Christ in the fullness of time. The mother of John and James represents the church system of this world or Babylon who wants to reign with Christ but does not have an inkling as to what we have to go through to reign with Him. 

Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 
Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 

John and James being two means they signify the Lord’s witnesses. As the Lord’s witnesses or elect, we were in Babylon before He came to us to drag us to Himself. During our time in Babylon, we were not given to know that we were to drink the cup that Jesus drunk and to be baptized with the same baptism of Jesus. In other words, we did not know that to reign with Christ, we must fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in our flesh for His body’s sake. 

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: 

This affliction is the Lord’s judgment of our old man or flesh, which is the cup we must drink and the baptism we must undergo in this age. John and James saying to Jesus that they were capable of drinking from this cup and being baptized with the same baptism of Christ shows our state when we were in Babylon. We had confidence in the capability of our flesh. However, it takes the Lord’s spirit to show us that of ourselves, we can do nothing.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.    

In verse 23, the Lord saying that John and James shall indeed drink of His cup and be baptized with His baptism implies that John and James were the Lord’s elect who were destined to be judged in this age. 

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, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 

Jesus also made it clear to us in verse 23 that it is God the Father, who determines who should sit on thrones with Christ. The Lord’s elect are those called and chosen before the foundations of this world to sit on thrones with Christ to reign over the nations and to judge the world in an age to come. 

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

Mat 20:24  And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 

As indicated in previous studies, the disciples of Christ were not converted when they were with Christ during the Lord’s ministry here on earth. It was after His death that the disciples became converted. 

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: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 

This implies that the disciples were carnal or ruled by the flesh. An indication of this was their anger because of John and James’ discussion with Christ about sitting on thrones with Him.  

1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 
Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 
Mat 20:27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 
Mat 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. 

Jesus used the occasion to show us some of the principles of the kingdom of God. As we are aware, our earthly leaders bear rule over us as we serve them. However, in the kingdom of God, those who want to be leaders must rather serve the brethren. Our Lord Jesus set an example for us to follow, by humbling Himself to the status of a servant for our sake. Our brother Paul also followed the same example by becoming a servant in order to gain the more.

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 
Php 2:6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 
Php 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 
Php 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
Php 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 

1Co 9:19  For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.  

Humbling ourselves and serving the Lord’s people is not what we see in the churches of this world. The leaders behave just like the leaders of this world who bear rule over the people. 

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

Mat 20:29  And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 
Mat 20:30  And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 
Mat 20:31  And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 
Mat 20:32  And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? 
Mat 20:33  They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
Mat 20:34  So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. 

These verses recount how the Lord has shown mercy to us, His elect. The two blind men represent the Lord’s witnesses when we were minding our own business and were spiritually blind. Through the multitude, which signify the church system of this world or Babylon, we heard about our Lord Jesus Christ as shown in verse 30.  However, we faced great opposition from our brothers and sisters in Babylon, when we wanted to see Him as He is. Here we see that the key role of the church system of this world is to keep the Lord’s people blind as shown by their opposition to the two blind men from getting close to the Lord. However, if we are called and chosen, then like the two blind men, the more we are frustrated by the church system of this world from seeing Christ, the more we raise our voice to Him to show us mercy. This mercy we have received is at the expense of our brothers and sisters in Babylon as shown in the following verses:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 
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 both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 

In the fullness of time, the Lord in His mercy, came to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness. The brightness of the Lord’s coming is His opening our eyes to see and our ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. 

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. 
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:  

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men 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. 

In verses 32 and 33, the Lord asking us about what we want Him to do for us and our response being that we want to see, is to show us what the Lord is doing in this age. He is opening the eyes of His elect in this age so that we can see and hear the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven.

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. 

In verse 34, we can see that it is the Lord’s compassion on the two blind men which moved Him to open their eyes. It is this compassion, which has kept us in Him to date and will continue to keep us until we are perfected by the first resurrection. 

Lam 3:22  It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Lam 3:23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.  

Amen!!

The Spiritual Significance of the Holy Days – Part 1

The Biblical Overview of the Plan of God

[Study Aired August 24, 2025]

The only thing we know that our heavenly Father did before the world began was that He had a plan in place whereby He would first create a Creator, who would become a spiritual Savior for all mankind, which He is in the process of making in His image. Then He would create a corruptible, dying, clay model of His final product. The clay model was to be completely unfit to inherit the realm of the spirit, and therefore must be replaced with the finished product body which had been proven by passing through the fiery sword which keeps the way of the tree of life. After enduring that fiery judgment, mankind would then be given a resurrected spiritual body which would be fit to inherit the kingdom of God.

This plan would be kept a closely guarded secret until our heavenly Father would send His “only begotten Son” to reveal Him and His plan, first to just a few “blessed and holy” kings and priests who would be given the honor of overcoming the carnal mind of their own flesh in this present time, and then, simply because of His own sovereign will, those “blessed and holy… few” would be given a great and glorious wedding ceremony and be proclaimed before all men to be “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Those blessed few will then be given the glory and honor of ruling with their husband, Christ, over all “the nations of this world” for a symbolic “thousand years”, during which the adversary will be restricted and imprisoned within the carnal minds of all men.

After the thousand years are expired, Satan will be released from his imprisonment and granted the ability to once again deceive all the nations of this world. All the nations will then “compass about the camp of the saints” which action will provide the Lord with the occasion He is seeking to destroy all the  nations in the four quarters of the earth. At that point that same small group, symbolized by the number of 144,000, will be given the honor of becoming the judges of both mankind and angelic spirits. Through the destruction of all flesh and the resurrection of all men who have ever lived, the last enemy, death, will be destroyed and all men of all time will be saved by the ‘fire’ of the lake of fire.

The Lord tells us that He has revealed to us everything His Father has revealed to Him:

Joh 15:15  I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father. (GWV)

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:

Here is how Young’s translates these verses:

Eph 1:9  having made known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, that He purposed in Himself,
Eph 1:10  in regard to the dispensation of the fulness of the times, to bring into one the whole in the Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth–in him;
Eph 1:11  in whom also we did obtain an inheritance, being foreordained according to the purpose of Him who the all things is working according to the counsel of His will,

As the title of this series of studies suggests, I want to give us all an overall view of what the scriptures reveal God had planned before He created Christ, and what He is, in and through Christ, even now working out in the affairs of mankind.

All we will accomplish in this study today is to show you that God does have a plan, and that plan will produce a creation of which this “earnest” physical creation is but a disposable prototype which is unfit to even exist in the “purchased possession” phase of the kingdom of God.

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

God is in the process of revealing to us “the mystery [the secret] of His will” which He tells us He has deliberately kept secret from all of mankind until the time of Christ.

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

The Literal Version (LITV) translates Ephesians 1:9 more accurately because the phrase “Having made known” is in the Greek aorist tense, and should read:

Eph 1:9 making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, (LITV).

Paul makes clear that this “mystery”, this “secret”, has been hidden until Christ revealed it to us “by the church”:

Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
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:

“Made manifest” in verse 26 and “make known” in verse 27 are both in the aorist tense. The former is in the passive voice, and the latter is in the active voice. What “made manifest to his saints” means is that it is God who has hidden his secret from mankind, and that it is also God who is making us to know His secrets, and mankind had nothing to do with what God is doing.

“Hid from ages and from generations” tells us that we are all born blind from our mother’s womb, both our physical mother and our first spiritual mother, Babylon, out of whom we must all be delivered:

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.

The phrase… “To whom God would make known” is in the aorist tense in the active voice, meaning God is the initiator of what is being done; ‘Making known’ to His saints what is the riches of the glory of this mystery, this secret, which he keeps hidden from all but his saints.

Because the Truth is so resented in every generation, it becomes less popular and more obscured, denigrated and despised with each passing generation:

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

Simply acknowledging the truth of these verses of scripture, simply acknowledging that God has revealed His secret to us, makes us hated, despised and reviled by all who do not like that revelation.

2Timothy 3:13 aligns and accords with all other verses dealing with the progression of God’s plan in this age. For example the disciples asked Christ this question:

Mat 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? [Greek: aion, age]
Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

How “many shall [be] deceiv[ed]”? We are not given a specific number, but Christ does tell us this:

Luk 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

To which He adds this:

Luk 17:29  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:30  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Finally, Christ concludes with this very revealing question:

Luk 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

That is how few will have faith “in the day when the Son of Man is revealed!” The salvation of all in Adam is secure, but that goal is not ordained to be realized in this present age. The salvation of all was never intended to be understood in this age. This, again, is what will be realized in this age:

Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Nevertheless there has always been a figurative 7,000 whom God has reserved to Himself (Rom 11:4), and since sending His Son, He has revealed so much more to those to whom He is making Himself known, revealing Himself, His mind and His plan for mankind.

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and the Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent

Heb 2:8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.

Since “now we see not yet all things put under Him”, it is obvious that there is much more work to be done. “You… put all things in subjection under Him” is in the aorist tense, meaning it is only “in Christ’’ that it is in the process of being done, and it will be realized.

Heb 2:6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Heb 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works

The plan is the same plan God has had from the beginning, as we are told in the first part of Hebrews one:

Heb 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
Heb 1:11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
Heb 1:12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Heb 1:13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Heb 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Why do we need to know the plan of God? Why did God wait to even begin to reveal His plan to mankind?

In the 11^th and 12^th  chapter of this same book of Hebrews we are told this:

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

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.

Christ was motivated by “the joy that was set before Him”, and because of the promise of sitting with God in His throne, He “endured the cross”, esteeming the shame of the cross to be nothing by comparison to the glory that would come with “the joy that was set before Him.” That is the meaning of “despising the shame.” Like Moses, Christ also “Had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” Christ esteemed the pain and shame of hanging naked on the cross to be unworthy of being compared to the glory that would be revealed in Him and in His Christ:

Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

It is an integral part of the plan of God that “Many are called… [to] read, and hear” these words, but very few are given to keep these words faithfully to the end. If you are a child of God, then His spirit will witness that to you. If it does not, then you will be unable to “suffer with Him” for fear of being labeled by men as someone who has “lifted [himself] above the congregation of the Lord.” That is what happened to Israel, and that is what we all do in our own appointed rebellious time. It was “all the congregation” that gathered with Korah against Moses and Aaron:

Num 16:1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
Num 16:2 And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
Num 16:3 And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, [‘There is no difference between the Lamb’s wife, and those who are cast into the lake of fire’] and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

As we will see, it is all an integral part of the plan of God, which was in God’s own mind “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9, Tit 1:2). Moses is a type of Christ, and the priesthood of Aaron typifies God’s elect, who are given to enter into the tabernacle and to administer the different functions of the tabernacle. While it is true that Israel represents God’s elect while coming out of Egypt, that is not the case while Israel is wandering in the wilderness. Korah and the 250 “men of renown” who were leaders of “all the congregation”, who rose up against Moses and Aaron, who were God’s ordained leadership, become typical of the rebels whom God will purge from His people as having the spirit of Babylon within God’s own people and who “will not have this man to rule over [them]” (Luk 19:14).

This is what God did at that time, and what He is doing to this day:

Num 16:19 And Korah gathered all the congregation against them [Moses and Aaron] unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the congregation.
Num 16:20 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
Num 16:21 Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.

The prophet Ezekiel tells us this was all a type of what God does as part of “working all things after the counsel of His own will”, His predestined plan for mankind (Eph 1:11):

Eze 20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
Eze 20:36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 20:37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:
Eze 20:38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

It is part of God’s preordained plan that we will all at first reject Christ and His Christ, just as Egypt and then “all the congregation of Israel” refused the leadership of Moses and Aaron. We will all, at our own appointed time, consider the trials of the wilderness to be nothing short of suicide:

Num 16:12 And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, We will not come up:
Num 16:13 Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?
Num 16:14 Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.

According to Ezekiel 20:35, of course it is really God who brings us into the wilderness and gives us all our trials. Those who do not want to endure this time of trial, and those who despise the chastening which God places upon us while we are in the wilderness, turn on those whom God has placed among His people as leaders and blame the leaders God has given them for all their trials, complaining that the promises of God are not being realized and blaming God’s faithful leaders for what their own self-righteous, rebellious sins have brought upon them by God’s design.

God’s own apostles are blamed for the abuses of Babylon, and are in effect told “Ye… lift yourselves up above the congregation.” So if we cannot deny the doctrines of Babylon, replace those false doctrines with “the doctrine of Christ”, and if we cannot accept the Lord’s order which He “has placed in the church”, then we will be judged, as Korah and company were, out of our own mouth:

Luk 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

All of this is part of the predestined plan of God, and it is very helpful that we know His mind and understand His plan as early as the Lord grants us in our walk. Christ put it all in these words:

Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

Luk 14:31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
Luk 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Whether you are a military leader fighting an adversary, the CEO of a company that produces a certain product, or a general contractor who has contracted to build a building, it makes all the difference in the world in the performance of those who are working for you to present to them clearly what the goal of your endeavors is, and if you can give them a clear overview of what is needed to reach that goal.

It was because the apostle Paul had a clear vision of what God was doing that he could make this statement:

Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
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:
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus [That “blessed and holy… first resurrection”].

A soldier digging a ditch will do so with much more enthusiasm when he knows just how wide, how deep and how long the ditch must be and why it is needed. A soldier who is told to dig a ditch without any instructions or specifications is not inspired to get the job done, because he doesn’t know exactly what the job is. Knowing that there is also a great prize for giving up all things to follow Christ is also a great incentive which God gives to those whom He has given to value the things of the spirit and gives them to “have respect unto the recompense of the reward” (Heb 11:26).

Knowing the width, depth and length of our calling is to “know [Christ] and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings”, all of which help us to become willing to “forsake all [we] have to [become Christ’s] disciple” and to become “conformable unto His death” (Php 3:10).

This is the formula John is given throughout “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is what is meant when we, as John was, are told to measure the New Jerusalem:

Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod [“a rod of iron”]: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

John, who typifies God’s elect, is told just what is to be ‘measured’, and he is also told what not to measure. We are in “vessels of clay”, and our strength and our efforts are very limited in these weak bodies of flesh and blood, so we really do need to focus on what the Lord tells us to do and not waste our energies on people or things of no profit to the growth and health of the “New man.”

Mar 14:38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

Let’s look to Christ as our example of the measure to which we are seeking to attain. Here is how He uses His own time and His own efforts. He tells us to pour out our resources on Him and His body first, before we pour out our resources out upon the poor of this world:

Mat 26:8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
Mat 26:9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor [the poor of this world].
Mat 26:10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.
Mat 26:11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
Mat 26:12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.
Mat 26:13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

The woman, who is commended by Christ, places her resources upon Christ “for [His] burial” of His flesh. That is where our resources should be bestowed. We are perfected only with the burial of our own bodies of flesh.

Then Christ clarifies Himself even further when praying for His disciples by making this point for our edification:

Joh 17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
Joh 17:7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
Joh 17:8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

Conclusion

There we have it:

Joh 17:7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
Joh 17:8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

God has given Christ to die for “them which you have given me” at this time, and through “them which [the Father] has given [Christ]” He plans to use us as the channel for His mercy to be given to all the rest of “all in Adam”, all men of all time:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Here’s the plan from the mouth of our Lord Himself:

Luk 22:29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;

This promise is reiterated in Hebrews:

Heb 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

“Reverence and Godly fear” are just more than this world is willing to give to a loving heavenly Father. However, that is what Christ rendered to His Father, and that is what we must do also:

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;

If we are granted to “serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear… in the days of [our] flesh”, then we ‘will not fear what man can do to us’, and like Christ was sent of His Father, Christ will send us to save this world:

Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him [“through your mercy”, Rom 11:30-31] might be saved.

John 3:17 is not the sum of God’s word on who is the Savior of this world. Christ was told by His Father to tell us this:

Joh 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me [“that the world through Him might be saved”], even so send I you.

Next week we will see just a little more clearly how important to the plan of God are “those [the Father] has given to [Christ]” in carrying out His plan to save all of mankind of all time.

[The next section of this study series can be found here.]

Law of Moses Versus the Law of the Spirit – Part 19

[Posted May 3, 2009]

[Updated March 30, 2024]

What does this phrase mean?

“Under the law, Shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed”

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

“The faith which should afterwards be revealed” is not your faith or my faith. It is “the faith of Christ.”

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

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:

Let’s examine the context of these scriptures and see if we can grasp what Paul means by this oft-used phrase “under the law.” This phrase “under the law” appears twelve times in the New Testament. Obviously this is a very important phrase for us to understand properly:

Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

1Co 9:20  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
1Co 9:21  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

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, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Galatians 3 begins with Paul rebuking the Galatians:

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2  This only would I learn of you; received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Maybe you didn’t catch that. Paul considered the keeping of the law equivalent to “not obeying the truth.” Redemption is for those who are “under the law” (Gal 4:5).

What is “the Truth” Paul refers to here? It certainly was not the law of Moses. The gospel of John tells us what we ourselves should understand about why Paul told these Galatians what their desire to be under the law of Moses indicates and why that desire to be under the law amounted to rejecting the Truth:

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

If one believes that he must keep the law of Moses to be saved, that person is believing a lie! Paul reminds us and the Galatians, that he is the one who introduced them to Christ, and he certainly had not instructed them to perform the “works of the law.”

Paul’s teaching to the Gentiles is based on higher laws which are given seven different names:

the Law of God (Rom 7:22,25)
the Law of Christ (1Co 9:21; Gal 6:2)
the Law of the Spirit (Rom 8:2)
the Law of Faith (Rom 3:27)
the Law of Liberty (Jas 1:25)
the Law of Righteousness (Rom 9:30-31)
and the Law of Life (Gal 3:11, 6:8)

He never refers to the law of Moses, the old covenant, as anything more than a schoolmaster, a tutor and a governor, to be abandoned upon coming to Christ. While Paul is emphatic about not being under ‘the law’, his readers knew what this meant: “I myself serve the law of God” with “the mind.”

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2  This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

“With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom 7:25). Paul equates the keeping of the law with “the flesh.” In verse 7 he says that those of faith “are the children of Abraham.” Verse 8 says the promise, that “in thee [Abraham] shall all nations be blessed” was an allusion to the calling of the Gentiles. “

Gal 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in ALL THINGS which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 …no man is justified by the law, (for) the just shall live by faith;
Gal 3:12  And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Gal 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Gal 3:14  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (vs 13). As far as Paul was concerned, the law has accomplished nothing more than to make us all “guilty before God”, both Jew and Gentile:

Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The promises to Abraham are only through his singular seed, Christ (vs 16). The physical promises – land, good health, wealth, etc. – don’t even enter into the equation: “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (vs 18).

Gal 3:16  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Gal 3:17  And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
Gal 3:18  For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

So, why the law? It was added to demonstrate how evil WE are, to give us the knowledge of sin, and to make sin appear exceedingly sinful:

Gal 3:19  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, [only] till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

For those in Christ though, it is only “till the seed should come to whom the promise was made” (vs 19). The law itself is not against the promises of God. Prophecies of the promises are within the law, but: “righteousness is not by the law” (vs 21). “But (since righteousness is not by the law), the scripture hath concluded all (Jew and Gentile) under sin (“by the law is the knowledge of sin” – Rom 7:7) (so) that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe” (vs 22).

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 might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

There is the answer to our question. Where are we all before we come to know Christ? “But before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith that should AFTERWARDS be revealed” (vs 23). That’s pretty clear language. The scripture concludes all under sin (vs 22), under the law until faith comes and delivers us from the law (vs 23). So, the law serves as the means to show us how exceedingly sinful our sin is and thereby brings us to recognize our need for Christ. Is there anyone who doesn’t know Christ? No one is born knowing Christ. We are all dragged to know Him (Joh 6:63) and brought to comprehend our necessity for Him by being “under the law.”

Once we come to know Christ, we become aware of Matthew 5 and the new law, “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), and we no longer need the schoolmaster who brings us to Christ. No one associated with the teachings of Matthew 5 has any need for the law of the old covenant.

Luk 16:16  The law and the prophets were [only] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

The laws of the old covenant become as obsolete and redundant as the sacrifices, holy days, clean and unclean meat laws and all the statutes and judgments. In Christ all the law is fulfilled and is now decaying, waxing old and is vanishing away:

Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

All those “commandments contained in ordinances” are, in Christ, being “abolished.” They are all types and shadows of spiritual realities which we have now obtained in and through Christ. There are no exceptions. Christ (love) has fulfilled the law for all those who are in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles:

Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain [Jews and Gentiles] one new man, so making peace;

Those who do not yet know Him NEED the law as surely as a fetus (nepios) needs an umbilical cord. This is what Paul means when he says “the law…is good…when used lawfully” – meaning that one must come to know that “the law is NOT for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient…” (1Ti 1:8,9). In Christ, we are no longer “lawless.” In Christ sin no longer dominates our ‘new man’:

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

We are simply under a changed law, a law as high as Matthew 5 is above Exodus 20. Those in Christ, on the other hand, just as surely must cut that umbilical cord and begin taking in a more mature form of nourishment. Until they do, they will still be “under tutors and governors” and will never be more than a “slave” to ‘[their] own righteousness which is of the law”, the most insidious of sins, the sin of self righteousness:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his [self-righteous] iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

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 [Self-righteousness].

“The adoption of sons” will make him “lord of all” only when he comes out from under the “schoolmaster, governor and tutors” (Gal 4:1,2).

The law, the “schoolmaster”, will always serve as a tutor and governor to “bring us to Christ.” Each generation of the “predestinated…children of promise” will be brought to see that they need a Savior through their own self-righteous, “road-to-Damascus” experience. We are all struck down and made to see our sins as only God is capable of accomplishing.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: helkuo, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It has never been and never will be anything less than a “fiery trial.” So “think it not strange” when the fiery trials come (1Pe 4:12).

Once again, here in Galatians 4:4, being “under the law” is equated with being under sin: “But after that faith [Christ] is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Gal 3:25).

Now let us consider the meaning of:

“Under the Elements of the World”

Gal 4:4 When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His son, made of a woman, made under the law.

We have just stated that “under the law” is the same as being under sin. It is most insidious because we are under the deception that “[our] own righteousness, which is of the law” will be acceptable to the Lord:

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:

Galatians 4 simply continues on with the concept of being under a schoolmaster:

Gal 4:1 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child [Greek: nepios] differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all.

Those are Paul’s words of warning to all those who observe the days, months, times and years of the law. That warning includes keeping the days, months, times and years of the Gentiles. He asserts that in so doing you are denying yourself your inheritance. One “differ[s] nothing from a servant [slave]” as long as we remain under the law.

Gal 4:2  But [you are] under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we [Paul himself when he was under the law] when we were children [G3516: nepios, infant, toddler, under the “schoolmaster”] were in bondage under the elements of the world:
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, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

The English word ‘elements’ here in verse three in the phrase “we, when we were children in bondage under the elements of the world”, is G4747 ‘stoicheion’. It is the exact same Greek word meaning the same thing which we find in verse 9 where it is repeated that being under ‘stoicheion’ places us “in bondage under the elements of the world.” Then verse 10 specifically defines what those elements of verse nine are:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [stoicheion], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? [And what ‘bondage’ does the holy spirit have in mind?]
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Gal 4:12  Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am [Do not submit yourselves to this “bondage”; for I am as ye are [delivered from such “element of the world”]: ye have not injured me at all [You are injuring only yourselves].

Christ Became Sin and Death

In case you didn’t grasp that, Paul said that those who were under the law and were redeemed by Christ had been “under bondage to the elements of the world.” This is just another scripture telling us that clinging to the law is like clinging to sin; not because the law is sin, but because “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom 7:7). It is through sin that we die. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). It is also “through death” that we receive life:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

So life comes “through death”, death comes through sin, and sin comes through the law. Are we saying, then that Christ as stated in this verse, was “made under the law”, was made sin??? That’s right, Christ was sin:

2Co 5:21  For he [God] hath made him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM”.

That’s why all of ancient Israel’s sacrifices had to be “spotless” and “without blemish.” Ancient Israel typifies the world without Christ, and their sacrifices typify our “spotless”, “blameless”, “without blemish”, sacrifice – Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Paul continues to demonstrate the function of the law:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

The obvious answer to this question is, “No, they do not hear the law” or the Galatians would not be submitting themselves to the law which prophesied of a “New covenant, not according to the covenant [the Lord] made with [their] fathers”:

Jer 31:31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my [new Matthew 5-7] law in their inward parts, and write it [Matthew 5-7] in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The reason the first “tables of stone” were thrown down and destroyed was to signify that those tables of stone typify the stony heart we have under the self-righteousness we have when we are under the law of Moses. That “heart of stone” is destroyed and is replaced with a soft “fleshy heart” meaning a heart that is dominated by the Lord’s spirit which He gives to those to whom He gives it:

Eze 36:26  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.
Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my [new spiritual] statutes, and ye shall keep my [new] judgments, and do them.

The rest of the fourth chapter of Galatians reveals the hazards of placing oneself under the law. Let it be noted that what the apostle warned would happen to those who place themselves under the law is exactly what has happened to the physical nation of Israel and to the apostate Christian church, which to this day continues to situate itself along with the apostate nation of Israel, “under the law” while at the same time proclaiming its freedom from it.

In verse 22, Paul tells us that Abraham’s two wives typify those in the church who place themselves under the old covenant on the one hand, and those who are under the new covenant on the other hand.

The two wives were Sarah, Abraham’s only true love and his real wife all along. The other wife was given to him by Sarah!

In this allegory, Abraham, the father of the faithful, represents Christ and the wives signify the two vastly different churches which bear His name;

1. Those under the law, “fallen from grace”, believing that a physical Jew is a Jew (Rom 2:28-29). Paul informs us that such people, though physically descended from Jacob, nevertheless amount to nothing more that Hagar, and her son, “the son of the bondwoman”.
2. On the other hand there are those in Christ who know what grace is and what it does. It is only those who are not under the law who are now “counted for the seed” and who are now “the son of the freewoman” even though they are not physically descended from Jacob.

May the Lord give you eyes that see as you read these words:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children [Not one ‘Christian minister in a thousand believes this verse of scripture].
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren [Gentile Galatians], as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son [Those who are under the law]: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

If we are IN CHRIST, we are “Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” and we are “the children of the freewoman” (Gal 3:29). If we are Abraham’s seed “we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise”; “the adoption” (Gal 4:25); “the glory” (Rom 2:7, 10; Rom 8:18; 2Co 3:8); “the new covenant” (2Co 3:6); the giving of the new spiritual law “after the inward man” (Rom 7:6, 22); “the service” (Rom 12:1) and the promises (Gal 3:16, 29).

Take careful note of who this true wife of Abraham becomes as Paul draws this allegory. Only those with spiritual eyes are capable of following the mind of God as clearly expressed in this chapter.

As God sees it, those under the law (those who believe that “through the deeds of the law some flesh can be saved”, are the bondwoman and her son. “JERUSALEM that now is and is in bondage with her children…is Agar (Hagar).” Hagar was the mother of Ishmael, the rejected son of Abraham, who is called “the father of the faithful.” Abraham’s physical, fleshly descendants are “the bondwoman and her son” who were cast out (Gal 4:25-31).

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Paul’s teaching here is diametrically opposed to the teachings of Christendom. Much of Christendom teaches that since “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Heb 11:28), therefore Christ must remarry his divorced wife as soon as he returns. That is tantamount to teaching that the first Adam in the flesh can inherit the kingdom of God. Christ is already married to another. He is married to those who “are become dead to the law.”

Rom 7:4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

If Christ returns and remarries physical Israel, he would be an adulterer:

Rom 7:4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Insisting that Christ remarry physical Israel not only makes Him an adulterer, but it also flies in the face of the spiritual types of the old covenant:

Deu 24:4  Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Such a false doctrine negates dozens of old covenant statements concerning Israel of which the following is typical:

Amo 8:2  And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

“Summer fruits” are contrasted with “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

Rev 14:4  These [144 thousand (vs 1)] 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.

“The end is come upon my people” means what it says – the end of the year, signifying the end of the ages; the “Great White Throne Judgment” and “the Lake of fire”, when there will be “no more death” (Rev 20:14-21:4). Any doubt about the timing of the salvation of Israel should be made clear by simply reading and believing:

Eze 16:55: When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate…THEN you [Jerusalem that now is] and your daughters shall return to your former estate.

“The gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, but their fulfillment will not be according to our time-table. The ‘fullness of the Gentiles’ will not happen until Sodom and Samaria are “returned to their former estate.” Then physical Israel and her daughters will return to their former estate.

Paul was well aware of this scripture in Ezekiel, and it grieved him greatly. Nevertheless, he reiterates the scripture “…cast out the bondwoman and her son [“Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”]: for the son of the bondwoman [physical Israel] shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman” (Gal 4:30).

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we [Gentile Galatians], brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son [“Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children” (vs 25)]: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

So much for any doctrine which teaches that anyone (Jew or Gentile) can be saved by the works of the law. Those under the law are the bondwoman and her son. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight…” Why is that? Again, we point out how Paul links the law to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the tree which can in no way lead to life: “…for by the law is the KNOWLEDGE of sin” (Rom 3:20). That is all in one verse, and that is why there can be no such thing as a gospel which is a “mixture of law and grace”. “No flesh” means not even any Jewish flesh.

Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

To paraphrase Ephesians 2:11-19: We are no longer “Gentiles in the flesh.” Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition between [Jews and Gentiles]…now in Christ Jesus [we] who were sometimes afar off [from “the commonwealth of Israel] are made nigh by the blood of Christ…for to make in himself of two ONE NEW MAN so making peace…Now therefore ye are no more [Gentiles] strangers and foreigners [from the commonwealth of Israel] but are fellow citizens [in the commonwealth of Israel] with the saints and of the household of God” (Eph 2:11-19).

There is no room in scripture for the two to remain two. There is only one “truth of the (singular) gospel” to which Paul appeals when confronting Peter. He tells Peter “We…Jews…know that a man is not justified by the works of the law…”

Gal 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12  For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
Gal 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Paul continues speaking directly to Peter, who was acting hypocritically before all the Gentile converts at Syrian Antioch:

Gal 2:15  We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Gal 2:17  But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Gal 2:18  For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Gal 2:19  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

So while some may be confused as to the function of law and grace “we…Jews… [Peter, Barnabas and Paul] know that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ…for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal 2:14-16).

If Peter, Paul and Barnabas, who were all “Jews by nature” (vs 15) knew this bit of truth, who are we to say the Jews are justified by works?

Paul did not stop with verse 16. Let us ollow on with Paul’s thought: “If while (we) seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid” (Gal 2:17). Peter’s and Barnabas’ hypocrisy does not make Christ a  hypocrite.

This is consistent with Paul’s teachings in Romans 6: “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (vs 18). Again in verse 22: “But now being made free from sin, and become servants of God, Ye have your fruit unto holiness…”

Paul doesn’t say “but now that you have no sin”, but rather “but now being made free from sin…” Being free from sin is not to be understood as having no sin, rather it is to be understood as “sin shall not have dominion over you.”

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: [Why is it that “sin shall not have dominion over [us]?] for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

How clear it is that anyone who is yet governed by sin is yet under the law!

The Law of Moses Versus the Law of the Spirit – Part 15

We concluded our last study on the third phrase which was “that which is abolished”. We will continue our study today on Paul’s fourth phrase:

Phrase #4 – Blotting Out the Handwriting of Ordinances (Col 2:14)

Col 2:14  Blotting out [G1813: ‘exaleifo’] the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.

The Greek word here is exaleifo – Strong’s #1813. This is the only place it appears in Paul’s writings. This Greek word does appear four more times elsewhere in the New Testament, however:

• Act 3:19 – “Repent…that your sins may be blotted out [G1813, ‘exaleifo’] when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
• Rev 3:5 – “He that overcometh…I will not blot out  [G1813, ‘exaleifo’] his name out of the book of life.”
• Rev 7:17 – “… And God shall wipe away  [G1813, ‘exaleifo’] all tears from their eyes.”
• Rev 21:4 – “And God shall wipe away  [G1813, ‘exaleifo’] all tears from their eyes.”

It is translated “blotted out” three times and “wipe away” twice. Once again the “handwriting of ordinances… written and engraven in stone” has the same fate as sin. Sin is destroyed (katargeo – Rom 6:6), and here the “handwriting of ordinances” is exaleifo – “blotted out [and] done away” (Col 2:14, 2Co 3:7).

We really need to know what the “handwriting of ordinances” is. The Greek word for “handwriting” is cheirographon – Strong’s G5498. It is a compound of G5495 cheir, the Greek word for hand and G1125 grapho, to grave or write. This just happens to be the exact description given of the Lord writing the two tables of the old covenant:

Deu 4:13  And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote [H3789: kathab, to engrave] them upon two tables of stone.

How were they “written” or “engraven”?

Exo 31:18  And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written [H3789: ‘kathab’] with the finger of God [“handwriting of ordinances” (Col 2:14)].

How about the word “ordinances”? The Greek here is dogma, Strong’s G1378. Strong defines it as “a law (civil; ceremonial or ecclesiastical) a decree, ordinance.”

The most prominent handwritten “dogma” in the history of mankind is the old covenant, ten commandments, written with the “finger of God.” Every commandment begins with “Thou shalt” or “thou shalt not”. That is about as ‘dogmatic’ as you can get.

We have demonstrated that the carnal mind can be subject to the law of Moses. After hearing Christ quote the ten commandments, the rich young ruler answers “all these have I kept from my youth up” (Mat 19:20).  Yet there was “one thing” he was lacking:

Luk 18:21  And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
Luk 18:22  Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

“Touching the righteousness which is in the law, [I was] blameless” declares Paul of himself before his conversion (Php 3:6).

Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Christ teaches us that righteousness which is in the law is yet “lacking”. Outward obedience to the ten “carnal commandments” does nothing to cleanse the inner man, any more than outward circumcision would give one a circumcised heart. “Cleanse first that which is within…” (Mat 23:26). This admonition can never be performed by obeying the ten commandments and the law of Moses.

How can we say this? There is no change of heart or spirit because the commandments which were written and engraven in stone are “carnal commandments” for “lawless” carnal men, and “the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and the disobedient…” (1Ti 1:9).

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law 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,

Notice this very clear statement in:

Heb 7:16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. [The Words of a resurrected Christ]

In verse 11, Paul points out that the people “received the law” under the Levitical priesthood. He maintains that the priesthood now, under Christ, has reverted back to the priestly system in place before Levi or Aaron, a priesthood “after the order of Melichisedec.”

Heb 7:11  If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Why change the law? Here is why the law had to be changed:

Rom 7:5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Rom 7:6  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

“For by the law is the knowledge of sin… the law is not for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient” (1Ti 1:9).

Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is [simply] the knowledge of sin.

Both “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and “the law… the law of Moses” do nothing more than make us know and see that we are “exceeding sinful.”

Rom 7:13  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

“By the commandment” certainly includes the ten commandments, which did nothing more than make sin “become exceeding sinful.” The ‘law’ and ‘the commandment’ do nothing to change the hearts and minds of men. All the law does is to serve as a mirror into which we can look and perceive just how filthy and unclean we are. No mirror yet has ever washed anyone clean as does the blood and doctrine of Christ:

Jas 1:23  Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this resembles a man observing his natural face in a mirror [The helpless, unmerciful and hopeless law of Moses].
Jas 1:24  For he observes himself, and goes away, and straightaway forgets what kind of man he was.

The reason we “forget what kind of man [we] are” is that we actually believe that being a good person according to the law makes us deserving of life eternal because “[our] righteousness which was in the law [made us] blameless”:

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 reveals that the righteousness which is of the law is nothing more than self-righteouness:

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:

Paul contrasts “mine own righteousness which is of the law” with the righteousness which is of “the gift of the faith of Jesus Christ” and he tells us that “gift of faith” is not of himself:

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:

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

Paul teaches that ‘[our] own righteousness is of the law’ of Moses and is therefore nothing more than the filthy rags of self-righteousness.

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our [own] righteousnesses [of the law] are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

This is therefore his conclusion concerning the law of Moses:

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law 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,

We are told clearly “for the law made nothing perfect…” (Heb 7:19). “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: FOR BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN” (Rom 3:20).

This is the reason given for changing the law. This statement brings us to our fifth phrase.

Phrase #5- A “Carnal Commandment Has Been Disannulled”

Heb 7:16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
Heb 7:17  For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Heb 7:18  For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.

Christ is made [a priest] not after the law of a CARNAL commandment, but after the power of an endless life” (vs 16). “For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the WEAKNESS AND UNPROFITABLENESS thereof” (Heb 7:18)

This verse doesn’t say the law “was weak through the flesh”. “The weakness and unprofitableness thereof” is a verbal description of the subject preceding it which is…  “the commandment”. Which commandment?

Matthew 5 mentions only two of the ten commandments; the two against murder and adultery. How did Christ demonstrate their weakness? Christ chose these two commandments to demonstrate to us that outward obedience to any law does nothing for the inner man. What has a man gained if he abstains from murder and yet hates his brother?  He is still a murderer:

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

What spiritual profit is it to abstain from adultery while lusting after a woman in our hearts?

Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

The law of Moses, all 613 laws, are so spiritually weak that it tells you to hate your enemy. It is so spiritually weak that it favors the concept of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Paul says “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully” (1Ti 1:8-9). How does one use the law lawfully? By “knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient…”

Here is the only lawful use of the law of Moses:

Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law 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.

Many a sermon has been preached quoting “All thy commandments are righteousness” (Psa 119:172) and “sin is the transgression of the law” (1Jn 3:4) as if Christ had never said ‘But I say unto you… love your enemy’ contrary to the law of Moses; as if he never told a man to pick up his bed on the Sabbath, contrary to the law; as if his teachings on divorce and remarriage were not contrary to the law of Moses, which is so spiritually weak that it teaches us that if we find no pleasure in our wife, then just write her a bill of divorcement, and send her on her way:

Deu 21:14  And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.

Christ is our spotless and blameless Savior but not because he kept the law of Moses. If he had done so, he would not be spotless. You do “… by the letter…transgress the law [of the spirit of life” (Rom 8:1-2).

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?

How can that be? How can one keep the letter and break the law? If you can’t answer that question, then Matthew 5 means nothing to you. The letter is the problem. The letter of the law of Moses is signified by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; “I had not known sin but by the law” (Rom 7:7). “… The law is NOT made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient” (1Ti 1:9). “The letter killeth” (2Co 3:6). It was “the letter” that killed Christ, and by breaking the letter Christ kept His “law of love” (Rom 13:10).

Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love [keeping the law of Christ (1Jo 5:2-3)] is the fulfilling of the law.

Let us at this point give a couple of examples of how a person “by the letter…dost transgress the law” (Rom 2:27). These examples will also demonstrate the “weakness and unprofitableness thereof” (Heb 7:18).

We will examine the two most distinguishing parts of the old covenant in the days of Christ and Paul – Sabbath keeping and circumcision.

One could be a Gentile in those days and honor parents, abstain from murder, adultery, lying, stealing, etc. but if that person were not circumcised, he was still not distinguished as a keeper of the law. On the other hand, if a Jew simply kept the Sabbaths and practiced circumcision, in those days, one was definitely recognized as a “son of the covenant” whether he honored his parents or not. He could be like Jacob and lie, cheat, and steal, and he was still considered to be a son of the covenant with Abraham.

Outward Sabbath Keeping

How did Christ feel about the Sabbath? As demonstrated above, He broke the Sabbath regulations repeatedly, admitted it and defended it: “David…did…[that] which was not lawful…” and “the priests…profane the Sabbath, and are blameless” (Mat 12:4-5). That sounds like a confession to me.

Yet Christ called himself “the guiltless.” “If you had known what this meaneth I will have mercy [on those breaking the outward Sabbath] and not sacrifice; ye would not have condemned the guiltless” (Mat 12:7). What was Christ’s purpose in doing what He admits was “unlawful” and “profane”? His purpose was to “enter into [the real] rest”:

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, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Physically resting has no more to do with ceasing from our own self-righteous works than the lamb slaughtered on the altar of the temple was the real sacrifice for sin. The real Sabbath has everything to do with ceasing from our works, not one day in seven, but twenty-four hours a day seven days a week! That attitude of “Not my will, but thine be done” is the true sabbath:

Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

According to Strong, ‘hitherto’ (G2193: heos) is “a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance.” What Christ is telling the self-righteous Pharisees, and us, is that… “My Father is on the job seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, and so am I.”

As mentioned earlier in this series of studies, creating this world had not tired our Creator. He simply ceased from working on His physical creation on the sixth day. The very fact that He ceased His work on the sixth day signifies that His work was not yet finished. It was not yet completed. Here is the link to the meaning of the number six:

Numbers – The Number Six

The Lord is in the process of completing His creation. The Hebrew is in the ‘Qal stem’ which tells us that a process is taking place, and the Lord has not yet completed the spiritual creature which will be in His image and likeness. The fact God hallowed the seventh day and made it holy makes it no more permanently holy than the holy ground in Arabia where Moses was told to take off his shoes. The only reason that ground was ‘holy’ was the fact that Moses was in the presence of Christ. The only thing making the seventh day Sabbath ‘holy’ was that Christ had commanded Moses to cease from work on that day. The seventh-day sabbath was given to ancient Israel as a type and shadow of Christ, “the Lord of the sabbath” (Mat 12:1-8).

“For we which have believed do enter into [Christ, our] rest…there remaineth therefore a Sabbath [Christ in us] to the people of God. [Because] he that is entered into his rest hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Heb 4:3, 9-10). This “ceasing from our own works” is the Sabbath that “remaineth”. Entering into Christ is not a one-in-seven Sabbath.

How does observance of the weekly Sabbath break the law of the new covenant? Keeping the weekly sabbath when Christ broke it (Joh 5:18) is clinging to a “carnal… ordinance” (outwardly entering into rest) imposed on them only until “the time of reformation” (Heb 9:10). When we observe a weekly sabbath, we are confessing that we are reserving six days of the week for our own works just as surely as the scribes and Pharisees were bearing witness against themselves by “garnishing the sepulchers of the righteous” whom their fathers had killed.

Mat 23:29  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
Mat 23:30  And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Mat 23:31  Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

Had Christ kept the seventh-day Sabbath, He would have been bearing witness against Himself that six days in seven He was doing His work, not the work of His Father.

The Law and circumcision are All or None at All

If Christ’s righteousness was in the law of Moses, then He would also have been required to keep the whole law.

Gal 3:10  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Gal 5:3  For I testify again [Paul had been down this road before] to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

James agrees with Paul. After encouraging us to “fulfill the royal law [not torah] according to the scripture”, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, he then makes the same point about the law that Paul makes. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all…So speak ye and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. [Because] he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (Jas 2:8, 10-13).

Jas 2:8  If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
Jas 2:9  But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
Jas 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Jas 2:11  For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
Jas 2:12  So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

This “law of liberty” of James 2:12 is the same “liberty” Paul speaks of in Galatians 5:1 and which Paul also calls “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). Of this “law of libery” James goes on to tell us it is a law of mercy, and he tells us that the law he has in mind shows mercy, and “mercy rejoices against judgment”.

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

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

There was no “mercy” in the law of Moses:

Heb 10:28  He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:

Therefore, James and Paul are in complete accord with each other. We are indeed saved by chastening grace without our own self-righteous works of the law… because we are HIS workmanship, created unto good works which He hath before ordained that we should walk in them:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that [faith] not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our own] works, lest any man should boast.
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. [“Faith without works is dead”]

Jas 2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Jas 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: Paideuo, chasten] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Grace… chastens us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live righteously…” Paul obviously agrees with James that “faith without works is dead”. When Paul says “Not of works”, his very next words demonstrate he is referring to works of our own:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our own] works, lest any man should boast.
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 [“Faith without works is dead”].

Jas 2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Jas 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Our works are not of ourselves. It is the Lord Himself who performs what He has “before ordained that we should walk in”:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Modern Theology

Those who think that the law of Moses is to be kept by all who are in Christ will tell you “the only thing nailed to the cross (besides an innocent man) was the animal sacrifices and the blood offering and the rituals surrounding them. All the other laws of God are still in effect today…” [Was Jesus a Racist? by Glen Myers]

While most professing Christians are not willing to go as far as Mr. Myers, saying “all the other laws are still in effect”, they do agree with him in varying degrees. Most professing Christians think more in line with Mr. Frank Brown quoted earlier in the studies. The common reasoning is that the ten commandments are not part of “the law of commandments contained in ordinances”, “abolished” in Ephesians 2:15, and “blotted out and nailed to his cross” in Colossians 2:14.

That the phrase “the law”, when standing alone, is always intended to include the ten commandments is demonstrated by the scriptures:

Gal 5:3  For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Gal 5:4  Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from [chastening] grace.

This means the whole law, not just the ten commandments. In other words, if one believes that Torah (the law) will help to save him, then he is required by Torah to keep it all: “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW to do them” (Gal 3:10 which quotes from Deuteronomy 27:26 and Jeremiah 11:3):

Deu 27:26  Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Gal 3:10  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

 The words “written and graven in stone” (2Co 3:7), the ten commandments, are in the “book of the law” in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. That “the book of the law” includes the ten commandments is unquestionable: “… I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet” (Rom 7:7).

“The law” is a single package. Any attempt to dissect or parse it so as to preserve some part of it will bring the curse of these verses down on those who do so. Our salvation is in ‘the faith of Jesus Christ’:

Rom 3:22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Circumcision

Why does Paul mention circumcision so often? If the whole law is meant by the phrase ‘the old covenant’, why does he make it so clear that circumcision is no longer required? Why, for example, did he not say “I testify again to every man that keeps the Sabbath that he is a debtor to keep the whole law”?

The answer is that the Sabbath, important as it was to the old covenant, was only a sign, a token (Hebrew – owth; Strong’s H226) of the covenant. “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for a sign between me and you throughout your generations” (Exo 31:3).

Circumcision, on the other hand, is called “the covenant of circumcision.” “And he [God] gave him [Abraham] the covenant of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed to them also” (Rom 4:11).

Circumcision is the original sign of the old covenant and is used by Paul as a single word to express the thought of being a physical Israelite and considering that physical pedigree to be of some consequence to God: “And they of the circumcision which believe were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Act 10:45).

Act 10:45  And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

It’s obvious from this scripture that even Jews who believed in Christ at the time of Peter’s visit to Cornelius’s house still had quite a high degree of “confidence in the flesh”:

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.
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:

Luke’s use of the phrase “of the circumcision” encompassed both the “confidence in the flesh” and the confidence in “works of the law”; circumcision being “the sign” of the old covenant.

God’s “Tabernacle” and His “Rest” are the Same in Scripture

With this in mind, let’s continue the thought in Hebrews 9: “Carnal ordinance[s] [were] imposed on them [only] until the TIME OF REFORMATION. But Christ being come an high priest of GOOD THINGS TO COME by a GREATER AND MORE PERFECT TABERNACLE, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this [stone and mortar] building” (Heb 9:10 and 11). And what is that “greater and more perfect tabernacle? It just happens to be the same as His real rest:

Psa 132:13  For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
Psa 132:14  This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.

 The Lord’s dwelling IS His rest, and our dwelling is our rest. “The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them… who have entered into His rest” (Rev 21:3). It is those who are “in Christ” who are the Zion of Psalm 132:13-14 and are also the “…bride adorned for her husband”, the “holy city New Jerusalem” of Revelation 21:2.

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 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Christ is our rest, and we in Christ are His rest: “On that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (Joh 14:20). If we are in Christ, then He is in us and we are all in God through Christ.

If we insist on observing the seventh day Sabbath and all the holy days, why are we not still offering sacrifices? If we don’t offer sacrifices because the type is fulfilled in Christ, why are we still observing all the other types which Christ has fulfilled? His own words are “it is finished” (Joh 19:30). “For we which have believed do enter into rest…” (Heb 4:3). Christ IS our Sabbath every day. Is he not also our Passover every day, living his life in us, is he not also our days of unleavened bread every day? Is he not the Spirit coming to us, our Pentecost, every day?

In Christ we “lift up our voice like a trumpet and show God’s people their transgressions” (Isa 58:1). Therefore Christ is our festival of trumpets every day.

Being “seated with him in heavenly places” (Eph 2:6) are we not at one with God? Is he not therefore our day of Atonement?

Knowing that we will reign with Him a thousand years, is He not our feast of Tabernacle?

Knowing that “as in Adam all die SO in Christ shall ALL be made alive” (1Co 15:22), is he not also our “last great day”?

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Yes, Christ is our last great day of the feast! All of the festivals God gave Israel were all a celebration of Christ and who He is. They were a celebration of Him fulfilling every “day, month, time, and year” mentioned in all the Old Testament festivals of ancient Israel.

Numbers 32:1-42  The Request by Reuben and Gad for an Inheritance in Gilead

[Study Aired December 18, 2023]

Introduction

Today’s study focuses on the request by the tribes of Reuben and Gad for an inheritance on the other side of the river Jordan, in Gilead. Specifically, it deals with the desire by the tribes of Reuben and Gad for an inheritance outside of the land of Canaan, Moses’ anger as a result of the request, their proposal for their men to join the rest of the Israelites in their conquest of the land of Canaan and the granting of their request. 

Right from the very onset when the Lord called Abraham, he made His intentions clear regarding the land that He expected his descendants to inherit – the land of Canaan. 

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 
Gen 12:4  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 
Gen 12:5  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
Gen 12:6  And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 
Gen 12:7  And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

Again, when the Lord called Moses, He reiterated His desire for the people of Israel to inherit the land of Canaan where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and the Jebusites were living. 

Exo 3:8  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

The request by the tribes of Reuben and Gad to have an inheritance short of the land of Canaan therefore does not measure up to the standard set by the Lord; and whenever we are not able to measure up to the standard of the Lord, we have failed. The Reubenites and the Gadites were duly represented in the army that defeated the Midianites. They were therefore running well, the race marked out for them until a little leaven leavened the whole lump.  

Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? 
Gal 5:8  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. 
Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 

As we go through the chapter, we shall unveil the “little leaven” that destroyed the whole lump. This story is for our admonition as we are the generation of whom the end of the world is come. What happened to the tribes of Reuben and Gad is summarized as follows for our admonition:

1Co 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 
1Co 10:5  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
1Co 10:6  Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 
1Co 10:7  Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 
1Co 10:8  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
1Co 10:9  Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
1Co 10:10  Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

The Request to Settle in Gilead

Num 32:1  Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; 
Num 32:2  The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, 
Num 32:3  Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, 
Num 32:4  Even the country which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: 
Num 32:5  Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. 

Here in these verses, we are given the reason why they opted to have their inheritance on the other side of the river Jordan. It was when they saw that the land of Jazor and that of Gilead were places for rearing cattle, and since they possessed a significant number of cattle, they decided to have those places for inheritance. The Bible has made mention of Gilead and Bashan being places to rear cattle and therefore as far as the eye is concerned, it is a good place to be. However, we do not walk by sight but by faith in what the Lord has said. 

Mic 7:14  Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

2Co 5:7  For we walk by faith, not by sight: 

One of the flesh’s potent entrapments is the lust of the eyes. This is what caused the tribes of Reuben and Gad to be derailed from the pursuit of the promised land. Many people in the word of the Lord derailed in their walk with the Lord because of the lust of the eyes. For example, Lot was entrapped by what he saw when Abraham gave him the opportunity to choose where he wanted to go. He chose the well-watered plain of Jordan, and in the final analysis, he lost all that he had labored for. The lust of the eyes only gives us temporal fulfillment, but in the long run we end up worse off. The lust of the eyes is a present danger that we all face. However, through the mercies of the Lord as He judges us, its influence is waning.  

Gen 13:10  And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. 
Gen 13:11  Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 
Gen 13:12  Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. 
Gen 13:13  But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly. 
Gen 13:14  And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:

This is what David said about this present danger:

Psa 73:1  A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
Psa 73:2  But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped. 
Psa 73:3  For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

Psa 73:17  Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

Moses Getting Angry with the Request

Num 32:6  And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? 
Num 32:7  And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD hath given them? 
Num 32:8  Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to see the land. 
Num 32:9  For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them. 
Num 32:10  And the LORD’S anger was kindled the same time, and he sware, saying, 
Num 32:11  Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: 
Num 32:12  Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed the LORD.
Num 32:13  And the LORD’S anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed. 
Num 32:14  And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel. 
Num 32:15  For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye shall destroy all this people.

Moses was very apprehensive when he heard about the request for inheritance by the tribes of Reuben and Gad. As a leader, he carefully outlined the consequences of the decision that these tribes had taken. In the first place, the decision by the tribes of Reuben and Gad serves as a disincentive to the other tribes to press on to possess the land of Canaan. Whenever our brothers’ and sisters’ actions are not in line with the truth of the word of the Lord, it creates a disincentive for others to continue in the narrow way marked out for us. For example, in the Bible, Peter’s action to stop eating with the Gentiles in Antioch because of those of the circumcision affected the rest of the brethren with Paul. We therefore have a responsibility to walk circumspectly in the truth of the word of the Lord for our brothers’ and sisters’ sake. That is what the tribes of Reuben and Gad refused to consider.

Gal 2:11  But when Cephas came to Antioch, I made a protest against him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 
Gal 2:12  For before certain men came from James, he did take food with the Gentiles: but when they came, he went back and made himself separate, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 
Gal 2:13  And the rest of the Jews went after him, so that even Barnabas was overcome by their false ways. 
Gal 2:14  But when I saw that they were not living uprightly in agreement with the true words of the good news, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how will you make the Gentiles do the same as the Jews? 

Moses also pointed out to the Reubenites and the Gadites that their actions were just like their fathers who came with a bad report of the land of Canaan and therefore discouraged the people of Israel from possessing the land. As a result, they ended up dying in the wilderness except for Caleb and Joshua. The actions of Reuben and Gad therefore had the potential to destroy the people of Israel in the wilderness. Moses’ reference to the actions of the tribes of Reuben and Gad being like that of their fathers implies that the tribes of Reuben and Gad had become Babylon that discourages the Lord’s people from leaving to possess the land which is their bodies. Babylon causes us to settle for less, thinking we have attained our inheritance just like the Reubenites and Gadites. When we were in Babylon, we thought we had a lot of cattle (physical riches) just like the tribes of Reuben and Gad to offer to God, and therefore, we were confident that it was a sign that the Lord was with us. We did not know that we had become a stumbling block to many keeping them from knowing Christ and possessing their bodies (land). This is what the Lord has to say about this:  

Isa 1:11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 
Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 

Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 

The Proposal to Join Israel in their Conquest

Num 32:16  And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones: 
Num 32:17  But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 
Num 32:18  We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. 
Num 32:19  For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward. 

As indicated in the previous verses, the decision by the tribes of Reuben and Gad to receive their inheritance apart from the land of Canaan is an indication of their status as being Babylon. In this case, the rest of the people of Israel who were to cross the Jordan to possess their inheritance represents the elect. Telling Moses that they intend to accompany the people of Israel to war against the inhabitants of Canaan signifies that we, His elect, are assisted by the work of brothers and sisters in Babylon, although they do not share in our inheritance. They have received their reward already!! Their works help us to wage war effectively with our old man as we possess our bodies (land).

Mat 6:5  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

In verse 16, the fact that the Reubenites and the Gadites intended to build sheepfold for their cattle and cities for their little ones is another way of saying that they had become entrenched in their position in Babylon, and nothing can penetrate their hearts and minds for them to repent. This was what happened to us when we were in Babylon. We had breastplates of iron covering our hearts and minds and therefore preventing the truth of the word of the Lord from penetrating into our hearts and minds.

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 9:9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

The false doctrines we imbibe in Babylon had become idols of our hearts and  minds (breastplate of iron) which prevent the truth of the word of the Lord. 

Verse 18 emphasizes the point that the Lord has given them the task of being our helper by being joined to us until we have inherited the promise. 

Num 8:19  And I have given the Levites (our brothers and sisters in Babylon) as a gift to Aaron and to his sons (the elect) from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an atonement for the children of Israel: that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary. 

Verse 19 assures us that our brothers and sisters represented by the tribes of Reuben and Gad will not inherit the promise with us just as Ishmael was never going to inherit Abraham’s possession. 

Gen 21:9  And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 
Gen 21:10  Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

Num 32:20  And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the LORD to war, 
Num 32:21  And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, 
Num 32:22  And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD. 
Num 32:23  But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. 
Num 32:24  Build you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth.

It is when the Israelites have subdued the land of Canaan before the Lord that the Reubenites and the Gadites shall return and be guiltless before the Lord. This implies that it is after the Lord’s elect have won the victory over the flesh and have settled in their inheritance that Babylon shall return and be guiltless before the Lord. That will happen during the lake of fire age when the elect have won the victory and settled in their inheritance as they sit on thrones and judgment being given to them. That is when our brothers and sisters in Babylon shall be guiltless before the Lord. 

Eze 16:55  When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. 

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Num 32:25  And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as my lord commandeth. 
Num 32:26  Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead: 
Num 32:27  But thy servants will pass over, every man armed for war, before the LORD to battle, as my lord saith. 

As we are aware, all things are going according to the counsel of the Lord’s will. Thus, what the Lord has destined for us and our brothers and sisters in Babylon shall be executed to the letter. 

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: 

Num 32:28  So concerning them Moses commanded Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel: 
Num 32:29  And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle, before the LORD, and the land shall be subdued before you; then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession: 
Num 32:30  But if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan. 
Num 32:31  And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As the LORD hath said unto thy servants, so will we do.
Num 32:32  We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours. 

What the Lord has given to Babylon (the Reubenites and the Gadites) is what the eyes can see and their feet had trodden on – the land of Gilead. The rest of Israel, however, were yet to leave the land of Moab, cross the river Jordan to encounter the people of Jericho before they could start to possess the land. For the Lord’s elect, therefore, the land of Canaan can only be seen from afar, and we are yet to tread on the land of promise. Since we have not seen nor touched our inheritance, we can only exercise faith to possess it. 

1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

In the case of the Reubenites and the Gadites (Babylon), what they want is already in their possession. Who applies faith when we already are in possession of what we want? 

Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Their eagerness to pass over the Jordan to assist the rest of the Israelites according to the Lord’s command in the verses above was therefore not borne out of faith or hope but their enthusiasm in receiving their reward here on earth which they have already seen. This is what characterizes the physical churches of this world. As the Lord’s elect, He wants us to walk by faith in our life here on earth. This is what the Lord told Thomas when He appeared to the disciples:

Joh 20:26  And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:27  Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 
Joh 20:28  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 
Joh 20:29  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Are you worried that you cannot see anything good on the horizon as you are bogged down with so many issues that you do not seem to find a way out? Then you are the right candidate to walk by faith. For what we see is only temporary, but what we cannot see is permanent.

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 
2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

Num 32:33  And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about. 

It was the two tribes, Reuben and Gad, which requested to inherit the land of Gilead. However, in verse 33, the half tribe of Manasseh joined them to have their inheritance apart from the land of Canaan. It is significant to note that Reuben, Gad and Manesseh were all first born of their mothers. Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob and his mother Leah. Gad was the firstborn of his mother Zilpah, the handmaid of Leah. Manessah was Joseph’s firstborn. They were all disqualified from the rights of firstborns just like Esau who sold his birthright as firstborn but was the first to be given an inheritance in Mount Seir. No wonder these tribes also wanted to be given their inheritance now in this life. As indicated, these tribes represent Babylon from which we all came. Because Babylon was there before us, we can say that it is the firstborn who has been denied her birthright because she has not pleased her Lord Jesus. Just like Esau, she is after her inheritance now in this life. 

Num 32:34  And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, 
Num 32:35  And Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jogbehah, 
Num 32:36  And Bethnimrah, and Bethharan, fenced cities: and folds for sheep. 
Num 32:37  And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim, 
Num 32:38  And Nebo, and Baalmeon, (their names being changed,) and Shibmah: and gave other names unto the cities which they builded.

Let’s take a look at the cities they built. It gives us insight into what they represent – Babylon. In verse 34, the cities built by the children of Gad were Dibon, Ataroth and Aroer. Dibon means wasting away; Ataroth implies crowns and Aroer means naked. The names of these cities imply that because Babylon is naked, that is sinful (Aroer) before the Lord, she is wasting away (Dibon) in this age and therefore shall not receive a crown (Ataroth) when Christ comes with His reward. 

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.

The next set of cities built as shown in verse 35 were Atroth – Shophan means crowns of Shophan; Jaazer which signifies helpful and that of Jogbehah meaning lofty. Both Atroth and Shophan refer to the same town which was properly called Atroph – Shophan. The names of these cities suggest that when we came out of the world (Egypt) and started our walk with Christ, we looked to Babylon as helpful (Jaazer) in our walk with Christ and to be crowned (crowns of Sophan) with glory when Christ appears.  It was later that the Lord opened our eyes to see the loftiness or arrogance of Babylon which had led to her being denied a crown, that is, an inheritance with Christ.

Isa 3:16  Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: 
Isa 3:17  Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. 
Isa 3:18  In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,

In verse 36, Bethnimrah means house of the leopard, and Bethharan signifies mountain house. In the Bible, one key reference to a leopard is that it cannot change its spots. With reference to Bethnimrah, which means house of leopards, we are being told that Babylon cannot change its ways to please the Lord just as the Gadites cannot reverse their decision to get an inheritance with the people of Israel in Canaan. Babylon being a mountain house (Bethharan), it cannot change its loftiness or arrogance. 

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

The Reubenites built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kirjathaim, Nebo, Baalmeon and Shibmah. They, however, changed the names of Nebo and Baalmeon as they relate to the god Baal. Heshbon means stronghold, Elealeh signifies God is ascending, that of Kirjathaim is double city and Shibmah means spice. When the false doctrines we imbibed in Babylon become our idols of our hearts, they become a stronghold as we continue to become entrenched in it (double city). We no longer become the Lord’s spices or flavor and therefore the Lord goes up (Elealeh) instead of coming to dwell with us.  

Num 32:40  And Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt therein. 
Num 32:41  And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small towns thereof, and called them Havothjair. 
Num 32:42  And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name. 

When we become derailed from our goal of possessing our bodies for Christ in this life and we settle for earthly reward, we end up taking our focus from Christ to ourselves. In verses 41 and 42, the sons of Manasseh, instead of giving God the glory, named the towns and villages after themselves. Jair named the small towns Havothjair which means Hamlets or villages of Jair. Nobah also named the town he conquered after himself – Nobah. That is what Babylon does to us – it causes us to focus on ourselves and not on Christ.

May the Lord help us to walk by faith, driven by the joy that is set before us and not the temporal pleasures of this life. Amen!! 

The Book of Romans, Part 20 – God’s Love

[Study Aired November 28, 2023]

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 
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. 
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

In our last study of Romans 8:19-30, the focal point was the transformation from suffering, which is orchestrated by God, to glorification.  The study emphasized the truth that the hardships experienced as believers are not aimless; rather, they are integral components of God’s plan of salvation. The redemptive narrative unfolds as God, in His great wisdom, transforms the groans of creation and the trials of His children into instruments of glory. 

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. 

Romans 8:28 serves as a beacon, assuring that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose, showcasing the transformation of suffering into glory. As believers, we find encouragement in knowing that our present struggles, intricately woven into God’s grand plan, are not in vain but rather a pivotal part leading to the manifestation of His glory within us, becoming a source of hope that anchors our faith amid life’s challenges.

 In Romans 8:31-39, we continue the journey through the writings of the Apostle Paul that resonate with a triumphant declaration of God’s unwavering love and the unshakable security found in our relationship with Him. These verses represent a peak of certainty and confidence, urging us to think about how deeply God cares for us and the unwavering connection He forms with His children. As we explore this passage, we’ll discover a divine proclamation that transcends the challenges of life, offering a greater understanding of the inseparable connection between God’s love and our ultimate triumph over any adversary. 

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Within the verses of Romans 8:31-33, a resounding declaration of God’s unwavering love and the triumphant victory secured through Christ’s sacrifice echoes. The opening statement in verse 31 boldly asserts the unquestionable nature of God’s support for believers. This affirmation transcends words, representing a profound truth anchored in the unchanging character of God. The reassurance is clear: if God is for us, no force can stand against us.

In verses 32-33, the focus shifts to the immeasurable gift of Christ’s sacrifice. He did not withhold His own Son but delivered Him up for the redemption of mankind. The imagery emphasizes the completeness and effectiveness of Christ’s atonement, leading to a triumphant victory over sin and death.

These verses show a love so profound that God willingly sacrificed the most precious, His Son, for our sake. The rhetorical question in verse 33 underscores the divine justification of the elect, highlighting that no accusation or charge can stand against those who are in Christ.

Psalm 118:6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

In the above  verses, we find encouragement in the thoroughness of God’s plan for our redemption. The profound love revealed through Christ’s sacrifice ensures an unwavering victory, providing us with a justification that exceeds any worldly accusation. These truths serve as foundational pillars, instilling in us enduring confidence in God’s unwavering love and the triumphant sacrifice of Christ on our behalf.

When we look closely at Romans 8:34, a deep revelation comes to light. The verse declares:

Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

This declaration corresponds with Old Testament types and shadow. In the Old Testament, the sacrificial system symbolized the temporary covering of sins, foreshadowing the ultimate atonement accomplished by Christ’s death. Leviticus 16:11-14 provides a glimpse of this typology, depicting the high priest’s actions on the Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 16:11-14 And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself: And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.

Transitioning to the New Testament, the book of Hebrews illuminates the fulfillment of this Old Testament shadow in Christ’s continuing work. Hebrews 9:24-28 draws a parallel between the earthly sanctuary and Christ’s heavenly ministry, highlighting the once-and-for-all sacrifice that negates condemnation for believers.

Hebrews 9:24-28 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: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world (kosmos): but now once in the end of the world (aion) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So, Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

These verses together unveil a comprehensive narrative of Christ’s plan of salvation, bridging the Old and New Testaments to illustrate the truth declared in Romans 8:34. The truth declared is the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system through Christ’s atonement. This signifies that as believers we are justified and free from condemnation through the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus, as detailed in Hebrews 9:24-28. Christ has set the example for us to follow.

Rom 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

1Jn 2:1-6 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 
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.

In Romans 8:35-37, Paul poses a series of rhetorical questions to emphasize the unbreakable nature of the bond between believers and the love of Christ. He presents a comprehensive list of adversities, ranging from tribulation and distress to persecution by the sword. Through this list, Paul paints a vivid picture of the challenges that believers will encounter. The implied answer to each question is a resounding “no,” suggesting that none of these hardships has the power to separate us from the enduring love of God in Christ.

Paul draws on a broader perspective of mankind’s suffering, acknowledging that believers will face a spectrum of trials. By employing the imagery of being “killed all day long” and “accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” Paul references the shared experience of enduring challenges, quoting Old Testament themes. Yet, amidst these adversities, he proclaims believers as “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” This triumphant declaration reinforces the idea that, in Christ, believers not only endure hardships but emerge victorious over them, guided and empowered by the unwavering love of God.

Psalm 44:22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

The verse from Psalm 44:22 supports the idea of enduring suffering for God’s sake. Romans 8:37 then strongly confirms Paul’s message that, with the strength of Christ’s love, the elect rise above and conquer the many challenges they encounter.

Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In these verses, Paul expresses his unwavering conviction that nothing—be it death, life, angels, rulers, present circumstances, future uncertainties, height, depth, or any other element of creation—can sever the bond between believers and God’s love in Christ Jesus. This list serves as a powerful reminder that, according to Paul’s persuasion, there exists an inseparable connection between believers and the unfailing love of God.

Psalm 139:8-10 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Ephesians 1:21-22 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.

Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

In this study of Romans 8:31-39, we examined the Apostle Paul’s powerful message about God’s unwavering love and the unshakeable security it brings to us as believers. We looked back at our previous study of Romans 8:19-30, where we learned how God transforms suffering to glory.

Romans 8:31-39 prepares us to think about the vastness of God’s love and the unbreakable connection between believers and God. In verses 31-33, Paul boldly declared God’s unwavering love and the victory won through Christ’s sacrifice. The Old and New Testaments vividly illustrate God’s boundless love and the completeness of Christ’s sacrifice.

Romans 8:34, uncovered the profound revelation of Christ as the ultimate high priest. By connecting Old Testament types and shadows with New Testament fulfillment, we gained insight into the depth of Christ’s plan of salvation for everyone the Father has given him.

Joh 6:35-40 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

In Romans 8:35-37, Paul utilizes rhetorical questions to depict the challenges that we will encounter. Other supporting verses, notably Isaiah 53:7, underscore the theme of enduring suffering for God’s sake, affirming that believers triumph through the love of Christ.

Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

Finally, in Romans 8:38-39, Paul assured us that nothing could separate us from God’s love. The verses from Psalms, Isaiah, Ephesians, and Colossians highlighted the all-encompassing nature of God’s love, prevailing over every aspect of our lives.

In conclusion, our study of Romans 8:31-39 reveals a profound understanding of the mankind’s, firstly the elect’s, secure position in God’s unwavering love. This message echoes with the assurance that present trials or future uncertainties cannot separate us from the enduring love of God in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 91:14-16 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

John 10:28-29 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

Numbers 23:1-30  Balaam’s Encounter with Balak

[Study Aired October 9, 2023]

Num 23:1  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams. 
Num 23:2  And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. 
Num 23:3  And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure the LORD will come to meet me: and whatsoever he sheweth me I will tell thee. And he went to an high place. 
Num 23:4  And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. 
Num 23:5  And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. 
Num 23:6  And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. 
Num 23:7  And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. 
Num 23:8  How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? 
Num 23:9  For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 
Num 23:10  Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!
Num 23:11  And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. 
Num 23:12  And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth? 
Num 23:13  And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:14  And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 
Num 23:15  And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet the LORD yonder. 
Num 23:16  And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say thus. 
Num 23:17  And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? 
Num 23:18  And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: 
Num 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 
Num 23:20  Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. 
Num 23:21  He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. 
Num 23:22  God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.
Num 23:23  Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! 
Num 23:24  Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. 
Num 23:25  And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
Num 23:26  But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do? 
Num 23:27  And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:28  And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon.
Num 23:29  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. 
Num 23:30  And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

Introduction

This chapter looks at the first two attempts by Balaam and Balak in preparation to curse the people of Israel which involves the sacrifice of oxen and rams, the contrary instructions given by the Lord to Balaam and the blessings that Balaam was compelled to pronounce upon the people of Israel, instead of a curse. The chapter ends with a third attempt with Balaam and Balak preparing to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. 

In the previous chapter, we learned that the Lord came to Balaam and told him specifically that the people of Israel could not be cursed since they were blessed. This should have ended Balaam’s quest to enrich himself with his divination. However, he kept on working with Balak thinking that the Lord would change His mind. Even after he got the revelation that the Lord is not a man that He should repent, Balaam kept on searching for a way to receive reward from Balak. This is what Jude said about Balaam:

Jud 1:11  Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Today’s study shows us the ways of the Lord and the Lord’s view about the church of the firstborn, which is symbolized by the people of Israel as they encamped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan opposite Jericho. 

First Attempt to Find a way to Curse Israel

Num 23:1  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams. 
Num 23:2  And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. 

As indicated in the previous study, Balaam and Balak represent our brothers and sisters in Babylon. This expensive sacrifice offered by Balak and Balaam was for the purpose of changing the Lord’s mind to cause Balaam to curse the people of Israel instead of blessing them. The Lord had made His will known to Balaam that the people of Israel cannot be cursed since they were a blessed people. The offering of seven oxen and seven rams on seven altars signifies the complete offerings of our brothers and sisters in Babylon where they put more premium on sacrifice in the form of tithes, giving to the church and working for the church, instead of obedience to the Lord. The scenario here is the same as King Saul who disobeyed the Lord’s words by keeping the best of the spoils instead of destroying them. This was what characterized our walk in Babylon. We were paying more attention to sacrifice instead of obedience to the Lord.

1Sa 15:18  And the LORD sent you (Saul) on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 
1Sa 15:19  Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” 
1Sa 15:20  And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”
1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, “Has 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 listen than the fat of rams. 
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.” (ESV)

What the Lord requires is the sacrifice of a broken heart or a repentant heart. 

Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Num 23:3  And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure the LORD will come to meet me: and whatsoever he sheweth me I will tell thee. And he went to an high place. 
Num 23:4  And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. 
Num 23:5  And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. 

Verse 3 shows us that the Lord will not visit us while we are paying more attention to sacrifice than obedience to His words. It was when Balaam had left Balak at the burnt offering that the Lord visited him. Our sacrifices in Babylon were therefore an impediment to the Lord visiting us to drag us to Himself. It is insightful to note that in verse 4, when the Lord visited him, Balaam was boasting to the Lord about his sacrifice of seven oxen and rams. As indicated, Balaam represents our brothers and sisters in Babylon who are only interested in showing to the Lord their tithes and offerings and their good works of charity. This was what happened to us when we were in Babylon. 

Isa 1:11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 

In verse 5, the Lord putting a word in Balaam’s mouth is another way of saying that the preparation of the heart in man, and what comes out of our mouth, is from the Lord. 

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

Num 23:6  And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. 
Num 23:7  And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. 
Num 23:8  How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? 

Balaam returning to find Balak and all the princes of Moab standing by the burnt sacrifice signifies the fact that Babylon is stuck to their sacrifices and are not willing to obey the words of the Lord. That is why in the fullness of time, they will show their sacrifices to the Lord by saying to Him that they have prophesied in His name, cast out devils and done many wonderful works. To this the Lord will tell them they are workers of iniquity because they prefer sacrifices to obedience.

Mat 7:21  Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
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.

In verse 7, the enmity of our brothers and sisters in Babylon to the Lord’s elect is evident here as Balak, the king of Moab, sought to curse the people of Israel through Balaam. This enmity is demonstrated by King Saul, who represents Babylon, trying to kill David, a type of the elect.

1Sa 19:14  And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she (Saul’s daughter) said, He is sick.
1Sa 19:15  And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.
1Sa 19:16  And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster. 
1Sa 19:17  And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?

Verse 8 assures us that whoever the Lord has blessed, no one can curse or harm. It is another way of saying that no weapon formed or fashioned against the Lord’s elect shall prosper.

Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

Num 23:9  For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 
Num 23:10  Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!

Verse 9 shows us that it is only in Christ, symbolized by the top of the rocks and the hills, we see who the Lord’s elect are. The people dwelling alone and not counted among the nations of the world signifies that the Lord’s elect are distinct from the people of the world and do not conform to the standards of this world.   

2Sa 7:23  And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? 
2Sa 7:24  For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever: and thou, LORD, art become their God.

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 marvelous light:

The dust of Jacob in verse 10 is a reference to the prophecy by the Lord that the people of Israel would become as the dust of the earth. This implies that the people of Israel had become so many, which symbolizes that they had become a strong or powerful nation.

Gen 28:14  And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 

We, His elect, represent the dust of Jacob spiritually as we are the innumerable company of angels as shown in the following verse:

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

The fourth part of Israel in verse 10 alludes to the form of their camp, which is grouped into four teams under four standards. The number four signifies the whole of the matter under discussion. This implies that the fourth part of Israel represents the whole of the Lord’s elect. Balaam stated that he wanted to die the death of the righteous in verse 10. This death of the righteous is the dying of our old man, or the flesh, through the Lord’s judgment. It is not attained by desire as Balaam wished, as the Lord had already penciled in those who are to die to the old man before the foundation of the world.

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

The Second Attempt to Find a Way to Curse Israel

Num 23:11  And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. 
Num 23:12  And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth? 
Num 23:13  And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:14  And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

Balak accused Balaam of blessing the people of Israel instead of cursing them, and in response Balaam told Balak that he could only speak what the Lord had put in his mouth. As indicated earlier, this is to show us that it is the Lord who controls what we speak. Irrespective of what we may conceive in our hearts and mind, what comes out of our mouth is what the Lord has ordained. 

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

Balak thought that changing the location of the offering could influence the Lord to cause Balaam to curse the people of Israel. Balak took Balaam to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah for another expensive offering to the Lord to influence His decision. Pisgah means ‘division.’ As we are aware, it is in Babylon where we have various sects or divisions. What this means is that while we were in Babylon, we thought that if the Lord were not with us in one church, then perhaps, if we go to another church, we may find Him. This resulted in our wandering in the churches of this world trying to find God, just as Balak and Balaam thought by changing location (going to another church) they may find God to change His mind regarding the fate of the people of Israel.

Num 23:15  And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet the LORD yonder. 
Num 23:16  And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say thus. 
Num 23:17  And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? 
Num 23:18  And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:

As indicated earlier, our sacrifices in Babylon did not result in the Lord appearing to us. It is when we ‘go yonder’ (leave Babylon) that the Lord comes to us with His brightness as He puts His words in our mouth just as He did to Balaam. Again, the fact that Balak was standing by his burnt offering together with the princes of Moab is to let us know that the only thing our brothers and sisters in Babylon can offer is sacrifice, not obedience to the words of the Lord. When Balaam went yonder and had a revelation of Christ and the church, he came to Balak and told him about it in verse 18. As we shall see later, what Balaam told Balaam fell on deaf ears. In other words, our witness of Christ to the churches of this world will fall on deaf ears. 

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 
Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people (Babylon), 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. 
Isa 6:11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 
Isa 6:12  And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 
Isa 6:13  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. 

In Isaiah 6:11, we are given the time frame when our brothers and sisters will start to heed our witness of Christ. Their hardened hearts will continue until Babylon is destroyed, and there will be a great forsaking in the midst of the land (Isaiah 9:12). This great forsaking is when the human race gathers against the Lord and His elect, which will result in the death of all humanity and the beginning of the lake-of-fire age. 

The next verses show us the revelation given to Balaam concerning Christ and His church.

Num 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 
Num 23:20  Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. 
Num 23:21  He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. 
Num 23:22  God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

One of the key revelations given to Balaam is that God is not a man that He should repent (verse 19). There are several scriptures which state that God repented, and so we need to investigate the word “repent” in verse 19. The word “repent” in everyday usage means reviewing one’s actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs and taking steps to show a change for the better. However, in the verses where the Lord repented, the word “repented” actually means to pity (in a favorable way), have compassion or console, according to Strong’s Dictionary. 

In Numbers 23:19 and 1 Samuel 15:29 on the other hand, the context shows us that the Lord not repenting because He is not a man has to do with the Lord not changing His mind as we human beings do. 

Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
Gen 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 

Jer 26:13  Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

Jon 3:9  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

1Sa15:29  And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Verse 20 shows us that it is what the Lord has purposed which shall stand. 

Pro 19:21  There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

As the Lord’s elect, the Lord does not see iniquity and perverseness in us even though in time past our ways were perverse, and there was iniquity in our hearts. This is because the Lord who has come to us is doing His work of removing iniquity and perverseness in us. The Lord is therefore looking at us from the perspective of His finished work in us. Are you worrying about some sins in your life? Have confidence that what our Lord starts, He is able to bring to completion. We are indeed blessed that the Lord does not see iniquity in us as He is gradually dealing with the source of our iniquity which is the old man.

Psa 32:2  Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. 
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: 
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 
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.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. 

The shout of the king among them in verse 21 signifies that Christ has come into our lives riding on a white horse to grant us the victory over our flesh or old man.

Rev 6:2  And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Num 23:23  Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! 

Verse 23 is another way of saying that nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ. In other words, if God is for us, who can fight against us?

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Num 23:24  Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. 

This verse is another way of saying that since Christ has come into our lives, He will conquer our old man. We, His elect, are represented in this verse as a great and young lion who shall not rest until we have overcome the flesh, or our old man, who is represented here as the prey. Drinking the blood of the slain symbolizes our victory over the flesh, or our old man. 

Deu 20:4  for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Num 23:25  And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
Num 23:26  But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do? 

Balak was gradually getting weary of his multitude of counselors, as he wanted Balaam not to either curse or bless the people of Israel.

Isa 47:12  Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. 
Isa 47:13  Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

In verse 26, Balaam continued to reiterate what the Lord had put in his mouth that which he would speak or do. This is to show us that it is the Lord’s counsel which shall stand in every circumstance.

Pro 19:21  There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

The Third Attempt to Find a way to Curse Israel

Num 23:27  And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:28  And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon.
Num 23:29  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. 
Num 23:30  And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

Balak decided to take Balaam to a third place called Peor which overlooks Jeshimon. Peor is a mountain near Mount Nebo in the land of Moab. Here the Moabites’ god Baal was worshiped, hence the name Baal-Peor. Balak believed that at this place, the sacrifice would be acceptable to the Lord and therefore change His mind since it is acceptable to his god, Baal. At Peor, they again built seven altars and sacrificed seven bullocks and seven rams. The question is, why was Balaam tagging along when he knew that the Lord would not change his mind? It is because he had set his eyes on the reward of divination and therefore could not see beyond the reward.

Jud 1:11  Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

If it is in this life that we have hope, then we are the most miserable people on earth. The Lord may reward us physically in this life, but that is not the main motivating factor. It is the joy that is set before us which is the driving force for our actions here on earth.

Mat 19:27  Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 
Mat 19:28  And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

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.