The Keys To The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 3

“Man Shall … Live By Every Word of God” (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4)

Today, Lord willing, we will learn how understanding the meaning of Christ’s words makes the scriptures come alive for us as they never have before and as they cannot do so unless we receive this key to the kingdom of heaven, this part of the mind of Christ:

Mat 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Christ tells us “the Word of God cannot be broken”, and the adversary, always willing to misapply, wrests and twists the Word of God, no doubt felt very smug while quoting words which had indeed “proceeded out of the mouth of God” when He came to our Lord with His next temptation:

Mat 4:5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
Mat 4:6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is writtenHe shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Mat 4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Joh 10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken [Greek: loosed]),

“It is written again” demonstrates Christ’s agility at using ‘the sum of God’s Word’ to counteract the adversary’s trademark of using only ‘some of God’s Word’ to twist the Word to make it say what he wants it to say. “The scripture [which] cannot be broken”, is the message of its “sum”, as our Lord demonstrated with His deft destruction of the adversary’s argument. It is now very clear that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” is only applied in conjunction with the principle of “the sum of thy Word is Truth”:

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV, ESV, LITV)

What we will be seeing as we discuss all these “keys to the kingdom of heaven” is that they are all really just one key. The key of David [also known as] the key of knowledge, the key of the house of David, and the keys to the kingdom of heaven, are all nothing other than the mind of Christ and His Father as expressed in His Word. It is having the mind of Christ that gives us the keys to the kingdom of God, which binds on earth what has been bound in God’s heaven, and looses on earth what has been loosed in God’s heaven.

Mat 18:18 Verily, I am saying to you, Whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth shall be those loose in heaven. (CLV)

The Word of God binds and looses only what God has already bound and loosed, and that is why Christ tells us “the scriptures [themselves] cannot be broken [the Greek is loosed (Joh 10:35), the same Greek word used in Matthew 18:18-19].

It is only because “all live unto [God]” that we are told that if we “live and believe on Christ we will never die, [that] now are we the sons of God [and that] life eternal… is… that [we] might know… the only true God and Jesus Christ…”

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

Luk 20:38 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

Joh 11:25 Jesus said unto her [Martha], I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

When Christ told Martha “whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” He was not speaking of physical life or physical death because both Lazarus and Martha are physically dead, and Christ Himself was physically slain shortly after speaking these words to Martha. But “all live unto Him”, and it is only when we come to “know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent” that we have “passed from death unto life”, as will all men “each in his own order” (1Co 15:23):

Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Now let’s apply our principles we have been given to Christ’s statement that if we hear and believe on Him, and if we love the brothers, we have “passed from death unto life”. If we are to “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and if we are to get the sum of God’s Word before we will have the truth, we must ask “are these two verses all there is on what is required to pass from death unto life?” Is a verbal profession of faith in the words of Christ and a verbal profession of love for our brothers the sum of God’s Word? Is that what “Hear my word, and believe on Him that sent me… love the brothers” means? No, an empty, emotional temporary profession is not what the sum of God’s Word means by those statements. Living by every word of God entails much more than an empty, emotional, temporary profession. That is the perfect description of “those Jews which believed on Christ” who professed to do so but could not “abide [Greek: continue] in [His] word.” It is Christ Himself who explains that we must abide in and continue to live by every word that comes out of His mouth:

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

The apostle John explains exactly what he means by “love the brothers” in 1 John 3:14, just a couple of chapters later in these verses:

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Oh, how offensive are those words to all who know nothing of living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God! 1 John 3:14 is all they want to hear. They will define for themselves how they know that they love the children of God and how they will define the love of God.

What does “Man shall… live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” mean?

I have been challenged for simply agreeing with Christ that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”. Here is that challenge:

“… apply each word to our own flesh and spirit as you said…”

“As [I] said???” Matthew 4:4 is a quote from a man named Jesus Christ. These are not my words:

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

We do need to analyze what those words mean. When Christ said “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, was He telling us that we must kill our brother Abel, sell our brother Joseph into slavery, commit adultery with Bathsheba, then kill her husband to cover up our adultery, or sell our own Savior for thirty pieces of silver, etc. etc. to ‘live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’? Or is Christ actually telling us that we simply must come to see with “the eyes of [our] understanding” (Eph 1:18) that “as in Adam” (1Co 15:22) means that all that has happened since the creation of Adam and Eve is simply the result of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”, all of which were in Eve before she, as Adam being within her, rebelled against the commandment of her Creator and ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, [1] the lust of the flesh, and [2] the lust of the eyes, and [3] the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Now, for those who are granted spiritual eyes to see “the things of the spirit” (1Co 2:14), we are here being told, in accordance with all other scripture, that “all [the sin] that is in the world” is encapsulated within these three categories of sin: 1) the lust of the flesh, 2) the lust of the eyes, 3) the pride of life. Where, in the history of mankind, do we see these three sins first being displayed? We see them all first displayed in the very first recorded sin in human history:

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [that is the lust of the flesh], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [that is the lust of the eyes], and a tree to be desired to make one wise [that is the pride of life], she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Adam, “the vessel that [God] made of clay, was marred in the hand of the Potter: so [God is now in the process of] making it again another [new, spiritual] vessel, as it seem[s] good to the Potter to make it.”

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

The point being, that Adam did not have to kill Abel to be guilty of murder. He did not have to sell Joseph into Egypt, commit adultery with Bathsheba and murder her husband, Uriah, or sell Christ for thirty pieces of silver to have all those sins required of him. All of those sins were, and still are, in the flesh of Adam along with all mankind of all time. “The first Adam”, our original physical father, displayed all the sins of all men of all time by simply ‘seeing the fruit of the forbidden tree as good for food, as being pleasant to the eyes and thinking of it as a tree to be desired to make one wise’ and eating that fruit after being told not to eat of the fruit of that tree. All sins of all men are within the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which three sins are in all flesh of all time. That is why and that is how ‘man must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’. It is not called ‘the tree of the knowledge of evil’. Rather it is called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Without the good there would be no place in our members for our very most insidious sin, the sin of self-righteousness, which is made so clear to us in the book of Job.

Two sections of scripture will make this point:

Job 27:3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27:4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Job uses the entire 29th chapter to tell us of his righteousness, but God will not be ignored nor will He be condemned by mere flesh, and He calls Job on the carpet for attempting to justify himself while condemning God:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Job had no idea he had been contending with the Almighty, reproving God, or condemning God to make himself righteous. Here is what Job thought of himself, before all his trials came upon him:

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

In type Job was given eyes to see himself as God saw him. Only then could he begin to see that all the sins of mankind were within his own sinful flesh, and not just within those who had sinned before him. Contrast this estimation of himself with the estimation He gave us of himself in Job 1:1:

Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Did the people who cried out for Christ’s crucifixion actually beat Him within an inch of His life? No, it was the Romans who did that. Did Caiaphas and the scribes and the Pharisees actually nail Christ to the cross? No, of course not. It was the Romans who did that. Those people who cried out for Christ’s crucifixion did not at all feel that His blood was upon them:

Act 5:28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.

The scriptures chronicle many wonderful works of God in delivering God’s prophets and His nation, Israel, from those oppressing them. However, far more pages of scripture are devoted to the sins, iniquities and rebellions of God’s own people, which brought upon themselves the judgments of God. Yet it is all scripture, and it is all types of us and for our admonition:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: tupos, types of us]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Living by every word of God is not a literal statement, but it is a true statement. Even in the Old Testament, disobedience to one law of God amounted to disobedience to all of the laws of God. Speaking to “the sinners in Zion”, Isaiah has these words of warning:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Whether we are a hypocrite in Zion or a man who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, we are mere clay in the Potter’s hand. Where we are at this moment is His achievement and not our own. That was the lesson Job had to learn, and Job is a type of all of us. Good or evil, this is what we are:

Eph 2:8 For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God’s approach present,
Eph 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should be boasting.
Eph 2:10 For His achievement are we, being created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God makes ready beforehand, that we should be walking in them. (CLV)

Our good works are not of us. We are “His achievement… lest anyone should be boasting”. If God is sovereign and is really ‘working all things after the counsel of His own will’ (Eph 1:11), then He must also be making us sin when we sin, and He must also be working all the evil that occurs in this evil world. Indeed that is exactly what we are told He does:

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

Job 12:16 With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his.

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

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

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

Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

When Christ tells us ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, what He is telling us is that He is making it so, and that for good or evil, we are “His workmanship…His achievement” (Isa 63:17 and Eph 2:10), and this is just a statement of this fact which we all must first live out before any of us will return to God:

Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

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

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

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

Living by every word of God is a general statement which does not necessitate that the details of every life be exactly the same. All that is needed to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is that all men first be filled with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

With those three laws of sin being the very essence of “sinful flesh and blood”, the life of every man “is as if” he is guilty of all things of which sinful flesh is capable. These verses in Isaiah 66 are addressed to those who, like our original parents, “have chosen their own ways” to replace the commandments of God. Just consider these few verses in Isa 66:

Isa 66:3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if, he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
Isa 66:4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
Isa 66:5 Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

The only people who “tremble at [God’s] Word” are those who have lived by every word and have first had the desire to “choose their own ways” burned out of them. There are no exceptions. It is true for “every man”. We all live lives of works of “wood, hay, and stubble” before we all “suffer [the] loss” of those sinful works and die to that first sinful “old man”. The apostle Paul makes this truth crystal clear with these words which he applies to “every man”:

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 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.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

“Every man’s works… shall be revealed by fire”. No exceptions! We “are the temple of God”, and we have all “defiled the temple of God”, and the old man in all of us must be destroyed before the new man will ever be “saved yet so as by fire”. Remember, even though we have sold our brother Joseph into Egypt, it was not us who did it but God (Gen 45:8). In the same way the temple of God within the apostle Paul was defiled, and the old Saul of Tarsus had to be destroyed before the new apostle Paul could become the temple of God with the spirit of God dwelling in His own temple.

Where does Paul confess to having defiled the Lord’s temple even though it is really God who made him do so?:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil [“all that is in the world”  (1Jn 2:16)] is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

These are not ‘free will’ decisions which we each make. We do all that we do because God is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”:

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:

Do we all actually experience in our own lives “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” in the sense of duplicating every sin and ritual of the Old Testament and every sin or act of obedience recorded in the New Testament? No, of course we do not, but because of the Truth of all these verses, it can honestly be said that “[it is as if]… all things come alike to all and [“as if] there is one event to the righteous and the wicked”:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Conclusion

Christ was so adamant about mankind living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God that He even tells us that because “[we] allow the deeds of [our] fathers… the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, “which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.”

Luk 11:48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luk 11:49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

So living by every word of God “is as if… all things come alike to all men, [so] that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;”

“This generation” is the generation of our old man who has been dying from the very beginning, with the salvation of the new man in view from “before the world began”:

Gen 2:17 and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it–dying thou [the first man Adam (1Co 15:45)] dost die. (YLT)

Through the dying of that “first man Adam… the last Adam… the new man” is born as per this predestined Truth:

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

[Part four can be found here.]