Jim's Footnotes

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Thanksgiving 2006 (11-26-06)

Thanksgiving 2006
Bible Study Time (11-26-06)

In the book of Romans, Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul looks back at the time before the flood of Noah’s day, and he documents quite an impressive list of grievances that God still holds against the people of that day. Their bodies have long since returned to dust, but the record of their sins still remains. God is longsuffering, but His judgment is sure. Paul said that:

Romans 1:18,21 (NKJ)
18 . . . the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were (they) thankful, but (they) became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Some estimate that there were as many people on the earth at that time as there are today, and it seems clear that they had become very prosperous. Jesus said that they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark.

God had continued to pour out His blessings upon the descendants of Adam and Eve all through the years. Oh yes, they knew God, but they refused to glorify Him as God, and they refused to recognize Him as the giver of every good and every perfect gift. We see in these people one of the distinguishing features of people who have turned their backs on God. They were not thankful to God.

We have just experienced our Thanksgiving holiday, and I hope that each one of you had the opportunity to reflect upon all of the blessings that you have received from the Lord. One of the things that I am thankful for is the Thanksgiving Holiday itself. I’m thankful to live in a country that sets aside a time for thanksgiving. It sends a wonderful message to our children and to all of the world that we recognize our own insufficiencies, and we give the glory to God for anything and everything that He is able to accomplish in and through us.

When I think of our nation giving thanks to the Lord, I can not help but think of Psalms 100 where the Psalmist says:

Psalms 100:1-5 (KJV)
1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Of course, this literally refers to a future day when the Lord Jesus Christ will rule over the nations of the earth in a kingdom of righteousness and peace. The Psalmist calls all of the nations of the earth to serve the Lord with gladness and to come before His presence with singing. He tells them to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

What a blessing it is to serve the Lord, but it’s an even greater blessing when we learn to serve the Lord with gladness. I’m sure that many people serve the Lord out of a sense of obligation or duty, but the real blessings of the Lord come to those who serve Him with the strength and power that accompanies the joy of the Lord.

Zechariah, Chapter 14, describes the return of the Lord to the earth and the subsequent kingdom. It says that:

Zechariah 14:4 (NKJ)
4 . . . His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.

Zechariah 14:9 (NKJ)
9 . . . (and) the LORD shall be King over all the earth . . .

Zechariah 14:17-18 (NKJ)
17 . . . it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

It appears from this that even in the kingdom some nations will serve the Lord out of obligation, while others will serve the Lord with gladness. The second Psalm confirms this, saying:

Psalms 2:10-12 (NKJ)
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

So the true blessings of the Lord will belong to those nations that learn to really trust the Lord, but thanksgiving is not just expected of those who will live in the kingdom. It’s commanded of us today as well. The Apostle Paul instructed the believers at Colossae, saying:

Colossians 3:15 (NKJ)
15 . . . let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be (ye) thankful.

Then in the book of Philippians, Paul tells us about the secret key that he had found to a thankful heart. He said in Chapter 4:

Philippians 4:11 (KJV)
11 . . . I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Philippians 4:12-13 (NKJ)
12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Paul had learned to be content regardless of the circumstances of his life. Paul knew what it was like to have nothing but the shirt on his back, but even circumstances like that could not keep him from being content.

Paul also knew how to be content even when he had more than enough. And you know, sometimes that’s harder for people than being content with nothing. So often, the more people get, the more they want.

Paul had learned to be content whether he had a lot or whether he had nothing. It didn’t really matter to Paul because he had learned how to be content in Jesus Christ. He knew that the Spirit of Jesus Christ was living within him. He knew that Jesus Christ was always with him and that Jesus Christ would supply his every need.

Therefore, the Apostle Paul could always be thankful, and Paul saw no reason for any believer to be unthankful. In the sixth verse of this same chapter, Paul had already instructed the Philippians to:

Philippians 4:6 (NKJ)
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

In other words, when you come before the Lord, enter into His gates with thanksgiving. Come with a realization of the many blessings that you have in Christ. Come reminding yourself of all that God has done in your life and all that God has promised to do in your life.

Then Paul says that if you do this:

Philippians 4:7 (NKJ)
7 . . . the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The devil is just looking for any point of spiritual weakness so that he can exploit it and capitalize on it. If we allow ourselves to throw a pity party in honor of ourselves, the devil is sure to crash that party and use that self-pity to separate us from the power of the Holy Spirit.

On the other hand, if we bring our requests to the Lord with thanksgiving in our hearts, the peace of God will protect us. The peace of God will keep our defenses strong so that the devil will have no area of spiritual weakness to exploit. In fact, the Holy Spirit will then be able to fill our minds with all that is true, and pure, and praiseworthy.

What a fantastic way to live your life, realizing your blessings and rejoicing in your victories. That’s the kind of life that God wants us to live, and that’s the kind of life that He has provided for us through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians, Chapter 1, spells out the blessings that God has provided for us today. In fact, he begins by saying that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Later in Chapter 2, Paul explains that believers today have been raised up with Christ and have been made to sit together with Christ in the heavenlies.

Now this is a unique blessing for us today. No other group of believers in the Bible has ever had this privilege. To be seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Accordingly, we are blessed in the heavenlies because we are positioned in the heavenlies. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.

Then Paul goes on in Chapter 1 to say that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. As Paul says this, he is actually facilitating one of his later prayers, which is that God will enlighten the eyes of our understanding. Paul wanted us to understand why we are here. He wanted us to understand the purpose for our existence.

Some people go through life asking, why was I ever born? What is the purpose for my life? In this verse, we see the answer; at least we see the answer for all believers. God knew about each one of us and had a plan for us even before He laid the foundations of the world, and His purpose for us is that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

Well, you might ask, what does that accomplish? Ephesians 4 tells us that one of our purposes is that we might make known the manifold wisdom of God to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. In other words, when the angels in heaven see the righteousness of God in us, when they see that we are holy and without blame before the Father, the manifold wisdom of God is revealed and heralded throughout the universe. II Corinthians 5 says:

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NKJ)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ
21 For (God) made (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We are holy and without blame before the Father in love, and our very existence proclaims to all of the beings of the universe the manifold wisdom of God.

Ephesians 1:5 goes on to tell us that we have been accepted in the Beloved. This means that we have no reason to fear rejection. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being rejected. It’s too painful. But this verse tells me that I have been accepted by God because I am in the Beloved.

That means that I can live my life without fear of rejection because I have been accepted by the One who really matters. I have been accepted by the creator of the universe. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Paul said, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Therefore, we have no reason to fear rejection. We have been accepted in the Beloved.

Well, how is it that we have been accepted in Jesus Christ? Isn’t it true that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? Ephesians 1:7 says:

Ephesians 1:7
7 In (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Our sins have been forgiven because the blood of Jesus was offered as the payment for our sins. Yes, it’s true that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And it’s true that the wages of sin is death, but it’s also true that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus Christ redeemed us through His blood, and God’s offer of salvation is open to anyone who will receive it by faith.

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

But now the righteousness of God is revealed, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and upon all who believe.

John 3:16 (KJV)
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.

Well, we certainly have much to be thankful for, not just at Thanksgiving time, but every day of the year. I hope and pray that your heart is rejoicing in the abundant life that God has provided for us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

I see that our time is gone for this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Thursday, November 09, 2006

The Miracles of God (11-19-06)

The Miracles of God
Bible Study Time 11-19-06

Last week we looked at the fact that God is still doing miracles today just as He did throughout the years of the Old Testament and through the early years of the New Testament. First, we saw that God is a loving God who continuously does miracles for saved and unsaved people alike. He causes the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. Many of the things that we see around us day-by-day come straight from the hand of God, but we so often take them for granted and fail to praise the Lord for them. Our health, the crops that grow, our ability to learn and reason, all of these things are miracles of God.

Then we saw that God has a specific plan and purpose for the earth, and we saw that God always has and always will use His mighty power to accomplish His plan and purpose. God saved David from the bear and the lion and then from Goliath, and He did so because God had chosen David to become the greatest king that this world has ever known. God parted the waters of the Red Sea to deliver Israel from the Egyptians because God plans to make Israel the centerpiece of His eternal kingdom. For this very reason, we know that God will continue to protect and preserve Israel all the way through our present age and through the years of the tribulation period for this very reason.

Therefore, if we, as believers today, want to see God doing great miracles in our lives, we have to be moving in concert with God’s overall plan and purpose. A few weeks ago, we saw the great rebellion of King Ahaz in Judah. He got so angry at God that he drug the altars of the temple out into the streets of Jerusalem and then he locked the doors of the temple. Needless to say, Ahaz lived a life of miserable failure, and he saw none of the mighty miracles of God.

However, his son, Hezekiah, dedicated his heart and his kingdom to God. He opened the doors of the temple, and he commanded the priests to serve the Lord in accordance with the laws of God. As a result, Hezekiah witnessed many of the greatest miracles of God. When Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came with his army and laid siege to Jerusalem, Hezekiah went before the Lord to ask for deliverance. He said:

II Kings 19:19 (NKJ)
19 "Now therefore, O LORD our God, I pray, save us from (the hand of the kings of Assyria), that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God . . . "

Because of Hezekiah’s prayer, God sent a message to Hezekiah through Isaiah that said:

II Kings 19:32-34 (NKJ)
32 "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: 'He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return; and he shall not come into this city,' says the LORD.
34 'For I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.' "

Then the Bible says:

II Kings 19:35-36 (NKJ)
35 And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses-- all dead.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.

Later, Hezekiah became sick to the point of death, and Isaiah told Hezekiah:

II Kings 20:1 (NKJ)
1 "Thus says the LORD: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.'"

Then the Bible says that Hezekiah “turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD.” Then Isaiah came back to Hezekiah and said:

II Kings 20:5-6 (NKJ)
5 Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.
6 "And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.”

So we can see from this that Hezekiah was a man who had dedicated his life to the Lord, and he was moving in concert with the plan and purpose of God. As a result, he enjoyed the blessings of God, and he saw the Lord do many great miracles.

It is such a blessing to look back at these events that took place in Israel’s history. In these historical events, we see the power of God, and we see the great and mighty things that God can do in and through people who dedicate their lives to the Lord.

However, we do have to be aware of the fact that the nation of Israel had a different relationship with God than we do. God had made a covenant with them at Mt. Sinai and in that covenant, God promised them that if they would serve Him wholeheartedly, He would bless them with health and peace and prosperity. That was a promise that our nation does not have today.

Even in Israel that promise was given to the nation as a whole, and we should not conclude that every faithful Jew in the nation of Israel became rich or that they were shielded from all adversity. The prophets are a good example of faithful men who had to suffer greatly for their testimony. Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day:

Luke 11:47-48 (NKJ)
47 "Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
48 "In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs.

As it was then, so it is today. Many faithful believers throughout our present age have had to suffer great hardships because of their faithfulness to Christ. But even as we suffer for the Lord, we are comforted in our knowledge that God is sovereign and that God is a miracle-working God. When we suffer, we know that God has a purpose for our suffering, and He will reward us for our faithfulness.

When we suffer, we can pray with full confidence for a miracle from the Lord, knowing that He is able to do miracles, and we can rest assured that God will use all of His mighty power to accomplish His perfect plan for our lives.

If we, in times of trouble, were to seek our own will instead of the perfect will of God, we would find ourselves in a position of rebellion against God. Many people in times of rebellion have steadfastly and doggedly pursued their own desires, seeking their own will, and some have accomplished great things in the eyes of the world. Nevertheless, they have found no blessing from God in their accomplishments, and they will find no reward when they stand before Him on the Day of Judgment.

When Jesus came to the earth, introducing the message of the New Covenant Kingdom, He went before the people with the power to do miracles. He had the power within Himself to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and to do all kinds of other miracles. One woman simply touched His garment, and her body was healed. Jesus didn’t do any surgery. He didn’t give her any medicine. She simply touched His garment, and the Bible says that Jesus felt the healing power as it left His body and went into her body.

Jesus gave the power to do miracles to His disciples, and Luke 9 says that “they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.” Now we know that God does miracles today, but this passage brings us to a totally different question. Does God give the gift of miracles to individuals today? Does God give individuals the gift of healing, or the gift of discerning spirits, or the gift of prophecy, and so forth and so on?

When we rightly divide the word of God, we see that there is a big difference between what God was doing in the gospels and during the Acts period and what He is doing today. Those differences relate to the fact that in the gospels and during the Acts period, God was offering the New Covenant Kingdom to Israel while today He is not.

In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, he said that he wrote as a minister of the New Covenant, and in I Corinthians he said:

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (NKJ)
7 . . . the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,
10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

Now as we get over into the epistles that Paul wrote after the Acts period, we see a different story. In Ephesians, Chapter 4, Paul said that:

Ephesians 4:8,11,12,13 (NKJ)
8 . . . "When (Christ) ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Here we see no gifts that relate to miracles. We see no gifts of knowledge or healing. If someone comes to you and says that God told them to tell you the reason for your sickness. Don’t believe it. That’s a trick of the devil to manipulate you. If they say that they know the very sin in your life that has caused your children to be sick, don’t fall for that. Those special gifts of knowledge and discernment do not exist today.

If you are a believer, then you have the Holy Spirit living within you. God has promised to speak to you through the Holy Spirit as you read the written word of God, and the Holy Spirit will speak to you as your pastors and teachers preach and teach the written word of God.

Paul mentions apostles and prophets in Ephesians 4 only because, as he wrote that epistle, the word of God was not yet complete. Since we now have God’s completed word, we no longer need apostles and prophets. We no longer need anyone to speak the words of God with the infallible authority of an apostle or a prophet.

When pastors and teachers teach the word of God today, we should do so with the understanding that we are fallible, that we are learning and growing in our understanding of the word. We do not speak with the authority of an apostle or a prophet.

God has determined that for the Church today to grow into a perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, all we need is the word of God, the Holy Spirit and people who are gifted as pastors, teachers and/or evangelists.

In the Old Testament, God gave the prophets the ability to do miracles so that the people would know that they spoke with the authority of God. Moses did the signs in the sight of the people, and the people believed. Elijah called down fire from heaven, and the people cried out, “The Lord, He is God.”

When Jesus Christ came to the earth, preaching the New Covenant Kingdom, He did miracles to validate His message. He told the people that He was the very Son of God, and He did miracles to prove that His message was true.

The Apostles went out during the Acts period, preaching the hope of the New Covenant Kingdom. God gave them the power to do miracles so that the people would know that they were true apostles, speaking with the authority of God. They were asking the people to believe that Jesus had come back from the dead and that He had been taken up into heaven. As you can imagine, that message needed some extraordinary proof, so God gave them that proof in the form of miracles, miracles that were done right in front of their eyes.

When Paul was called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ, he went out during the Acts period as a minister of the New Covenant. He went out telling people that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins and that He had been raised from the dead to give them eternal life. His message was validated by miracles. As Paul wrote to the Galatians during the Acts period, he said:

Galatians 3:5 (NKJ)
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?--

The miracles that Paul did during the Acts period confirmed the fact that Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Therefore, all of the Apostles were confirmed by miracles, but when Israel’s New Covenant program was rejected by the nation of Israel at the end of the Acts period, God set aside the New Covenant program and with it He set aside the gifts that were related to the miracles.

Today, we live under the program for the Church which is the Body of Christ. No preacher or teacher or evangelist speaks today with the authority of an apostle or a prophet because we already have the completed word of God. God still does mighty miracles, and every day we should expect to see the Lord working in miraculous ways, but we need to recognize that today God does not give the gift of miracles to individual believers.

Thank you for studying with me this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

God of Miracles (11-12-06)

God of Miracles
Bible Study Time 11-12-06

Last week we talked about the fact that God is sovereign over all the universe. No one is more powerful than He. No one is wiser than He. He is powerful enough and wise enough to accomplish any task on His agenda. No one tells Him what to do, and He is accountable to no one for the things that He does.

This concept, this doctrine of God’s sovereignty is so important to us because, ultimately, the one thing that God requires of us is that we trust Him and believe what He says. With this in mind, how could we trust God if there were certain things that He could not do, if there were certain limitations to His power or to His knowledge and wisdom?

Can you image how your view of life would change if you thought that there were things that God could not understand or that He could not do?

Abraham trusted God implicitly. He believed in God. Abraham had a relationship with God and had the hope of eternal life because He believed what God said. When God said, “Abraham, you’re going to have a son even though you’re 85 years old,” Abraham took God at His word and believed what God said. As a result, God accounted Abraham as righteous.

David grew up hearing about the mighty power of God. He heard stories about God parting the waters of the Red Sea so that his forefathers could cross on dry land. Then his own personal faith grew as a result of his own experiences with the Lord. On two separate occasions as a shepherd, David had to do battle with a bear and a lion. At one point, he told King Saul that when the lion rose up against him, he grabbed it by the beard and stuck it with a mortal blow.

David was delivered from the lion and the bear and then from the terrifying giant named Goliath. Ultimately, David was delivered from all of his enemies, and he said:

2 Samuel 22:31-34 (NKJ)
31 As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is proven; he is a shield to all who trust in Him.
32 "For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?
33 God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect.
34 He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places.

David knew the joy that belongs to all those who know how to trust the Lord. He knew what it was like to come to the end of the day and say, “Lord, thank you for being with me today. I can see that You are the One who was directing me every step of the way. When I was exhausted, You gave me strength. When I was about to say something stupid, You held my tongue. I thank You and praise You for who You are and for the things You have done.”

Abraham trusted the Lord, and David trusted the Lord, and they both witnessed the mighty miracles of God. But there are those who ask if God is still doing miracles today, and I guess that if someone were to say that God is no longer doing miracles, they would have to come up with some kind of Biblical evidence to support their claim. If they say that they have never seen God do a miracle, that would not be very good evidence that God is not doing miracles. Maybe God just doesn’t want to do miracles for them.

From a Biblical perspective, the Old Testament scriptures are full of the accounts of God miracles, and the New Testament scriptures bear witness to all of the miracles that Jesus and the apostles did, but is there any evidence that God is still doing miracles today.

I think that as we look at the scriptures we see ample evidence that God is still doing miracles today, and the fact that God is still doing miracles is even supported by science and history. First, the Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God still has the power, and He still has the desire to help us and provide for us. Paul said, “my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” and we can rest assured that God will not hesitate to use all of His mighty power to provide for our needs.

In fact, I think that God loves doing miracles in our lives. God loves it when we open our hearts and allow Him to work. He wants to do great and mighty things, and He wants to glorify His name through the miracles that He does.

We often limit God’s ability to do miracles because we suffer from a lack of faith. It may be that we have not because we ask not. We often settle for less than God’s best simply because we do not believe that God is willing and able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that God works in us.

God loves to show His miraculous power, but there are times when we are not only reluctant to ask for miracles but we also fail to acknowledge the miracles that God is doing. Without a doubt, we can all praise the Lord right now for the mighty miracles that He is doing in our lives, but are we doing so?

Let’s take the area of personal health. We often think of miracles in terms of God healing people from one disease or another, but just think of the thousands of miracles that God is doing in your body right now, this very minute.

There are countless numbers of infectious agents that are attacking your body right now, and any one of those organisms could actually kill you. Do you know why they don’t kill you? It’s because God is miraculously protecting you. He is working in and through your body’s immune system to kill those microorganisms before they can kill you.

God is miraculously saving your life and my life right now. How often do we stop to praise the Lord for His continuous, ongoing miracles?

When we feel sick and we go to a physician, we often think or hope that our physician will be able to heal us of our disease. But the truth is that no physician has the power to heal. That is God’s area of expertise, and it’s wrong to give His glory to another.

Researchers can set up experiments to show the various ways that the human body responds to this procedure or that medication. Then based on these observations, physicians can base their practice of medicine on what is hopefully a high probability of success. But even with all of this research and all of this knowledge, physicians still do not have the power to heal.

The farmer is in a similar situation in that the skillful farmer takes it upon himself to learn as much as he can about the physical laws that govern the earth, but one of the first things that he will learn is that he does not have the power to make a seed sprout and then grow into a productive plant. Only God can do that. Every time a crop is harvested, we see evidence of God’s miracle working power.

Farmers know the conditions that are conducive to causing a seed to sprout, but what is it that’s inside the cells of that seed that make it all of a sudden decide to sprout. That is a mystery that only God knows, and God is the only one who can make it happen.

Farmers plant the seed and supply the fertilizer. They might even provide some irrigation, but they cannot control all of the variables that have to come together to produce a crop.

Every once in a while God will change some little something in the physical environment which we may not even notice, but that little change will result in a bumper crop on the one hand or possibly a crop failure on the other. It seems that God likes to remind us now and then that we are totally dependent upon the miracles that He does on our behalf.

Even our ability to learn is an astonishing miracle. Who is it that gives the researchers the ability to design an experiment that will yield meaningful results? Who is it that gives them the ability to interpret those results in an accurate way? Anyone who has taken a course in statistics knows that not just anyone can do that, and such gifts are truly miracles from God.

We cannot even begin to comprehend all of the miracles that God is doing today, but some would say, “Yes, but these things are things that God does for everyone. Even people who have absolutely no faith in God are the beneficiaries of many of these miracles.” And that’s a great point, but it is a point in which we should all rejoice.

God heals the bodies of even unsaved people. God causes crops to grow for even unsaved farmers. Some of the most brilliant minds of all time have been the minds of unsaved people. Aren’t you glad that we serve a God like that. The fact that God does miracles even for unsaved people shows the amazing love and the amazing grace of God. When God sends the rain, it falls on the just and the unjust. God loves all people whether they are saved or unsaved.

Sometimes Christians have a tendency to think of miracles only in terms of those things that God does for saved people who have extraordinary faith. We think of things like God parting the waters of the Red Sea for the Israelites only to allow those waters to come crashing back down upon the Egyptians. Or we think of God causing the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down so that the Israelites could go in and destroy the wicked citizens of Jericho.

Is God doing those kinds of miracles today? I think He is. God always does whatever is necessary to accomplish His plan and purpose. There was no way that God was going to allow David, for instance, to be killed by a lion or a bear. God had great plans for David’s future. And today, we can safely conclude that God is not going to allow the nation of Israel to be destroyed. God’s plan and purpose will not allow it.

God’s overall plan and purpose for planet Earth is the same today as it has always been. At the time that God pronounced the curse in the Garden of Eden, God told us that the Seed of the woman would destroy the devil. The scriptures teach us that when God does bind the devil in the bottomless pit at the end of the tribulation period, the creation itself will be set free from the curse of sin.

Then, after the thousand year reign of Christ, the devil will be cast into the lake of fire, and at that time our present heaven and earth will pass away but a new heaven and a new earth will appear which will have no sin and will have no corruption. God promised Abraham and David that the Seed of the woman would be one of their descendants and that the nation of Israel would serve as a nation of priests in the restored earth.

Through the years, God has done many extraordinary miracles in order to bring this plan to fruition. He divided the waters of the Red Sea so that the nation of Israel could escape from Egypt where they faced certain destruction. God caused the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down because it was His plan to give all of the land of Canaan to the nation of Israel, and against all odds, God gave the nation of Israel victory over all of the Canaanite nations.

Is God doing miracles such as these today? Yes, He is. Whenever something needs to be accomplished today to set the stage for the tribulation period and the future kingdom of the restored earth, there is no power on earth and there is no power of Satan that can prevent God from doing all that is in accordance with His plan.

Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but the nation of Israel is still around. That’s a miracle. When God gave the nation of Israel a homeland in Palestine after World War II, that was a miracle. The fact that Israel has been able to survive in the hostile political environment of the Middle East for the past 58 years is a miracle.

In 1967, Israel learned of an eminent attack by Egypt and launched a pre-emptive attack against Egypt’s air force. As a result, Jordan attacked Jerusalem. Enemy forces surrounded Israel, but six days later the war was over, and Israel had gained control of the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Now you tell me, is God still doing miracles today? I think that we would all have to agree that He is.

Furthermore, God does not just do miracles for Israel. Two hundred and thirty years ago, a handful of rebels in the British colonies of the new world decided to declare their independence from England.

England was the most powerful nation on the earth as that time but seven years later, the British signed the Treaty of Paris and agreed to withdraw from America. I think it is no coincidence that those British colonies have now become the greatest and most powerful nation on the earth and also happens to be the primary supporter of Israel in the Middle East.

God is doing miracles today, and He is doing them in exactly the same way and for exactly the same reason that He has always done miracles. God will do whatever is necessary to accomplish His overall plan and purpose.

At the same time, let me say this, God never has and never will set aside His plan in order to grant us something that we pray for. God called Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egypt after hundreds of years of suffering. God told Moses that He had heard their cries and that He was aware of their suffering, but still He did not call Moses until it was just the right time according to His plan and purpose. God had told Abraham 400 years earlier that his descendants would remain in Egypt until the iniquity of the Amorites was complete.

Daniel confessed the sins of Israel and prayed that the glory of the temple worship might be restored, but God sent Gabriel to tell Daniel that the kingdom in all of its glory would not be reestablished for at least another 490 years.

I see that our time is gone for this morning, but next week I’m planning to talk a little bit more about the miracles of God. It’s been a pleasure being with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Friday, October 27, 2006

Who's In Charge? (11-5-06)

Who’s In Charge?
Bible Study Time 11-5-06

The world we live in today is a very complex world. We face many diverse problems which have far reaching consequences. These problems are so complex that understanding the problems is hard enough, let alone coming up with solutions.

Take global warming, for instance. Is global warming real or are we just in a warming cycle? If global warming is real, then what is the cause? Is it a situation that man has created by pumping pollutants into the air, and is it possible that man could somehow reverse the trend? Or is global warming simply a result of natural forces over which man has no control at all?

The global economy is also mystifying. For many years, our country was essentially self sufficient. We produced and bought our own products, and as a result our companies could set their product prices and pay their employees accordingly. But now our companies are forced to compete with companies around the world that often require their employees to work for unacceptably low wages and in intolerably poor working conditions.

Then there’s the problem that relates to the distribution of the world’s wealth. Many people live in opulence and splendor, while others go to bed hungry and still others starve to death. If those who can provide relief try to do so, their efforts are often hindered or sabotaged by belligerent and oppressive governments or warlords.

This leads us to the subject of our own safety and security. We live under the constant threat of attack from people who believe that killing innocent civilians is an acceptable means of negotiating their political agenda. Many of the leaders of the smaller nations of the world show signs of fanaticism and their decisions often defy human reasoning. But at the same time one can hardly blame those legitimate and reasonable leaders who express their fears about negotiating with superpowers who always negotiate from a position of undeniable and overpowering strength.

If this description of our world today gives you a certain sense of anxiety, please allow me to share with you the good news of God’s word. The good news is that God is the creator of the universe and that He is sovereign over all events that take place within the universe. There is nothing that takes God by surprise.

Years ago, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon thought that he had everything under control, but when his heart was lifted up with pride, God humbled him. Daniel, Chapter 4, says that Nebuchadnezzar was:

Daniel 4:33 (NKJ)
33 . . . driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.

But at the appointed time, God healed Nebuchadnezzar and restored him to his position as the King of Babylon. Afterward, Nebuchadnezzar said:

Daniel 4:34-35 (NKJ)
34 . . . I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.
35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; he does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"

Nebuchadnezzar had to learn what Daniel and his friends already knew. They knew about and believed Isaiah, Chapter 45, where God said:

Isaiah 45:12 (NKJ)
12 I have made the earth, and created man on it. I-- My hands-- stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded.

They knew the words of Psalms 78, where we read:

Psalms 78:12-16 (NKJ)
12 Marvelous things (the Lord did for His people) in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters stand up like a heap.
14 In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
16 He also brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

In Daniel’s day, the children of Israel were suffering as a result of their sin against the Lord. They had been taken away from their homes in Judah and were living as captives in Babylon, but still Daniel knew that God was in control.

He knew that the suffering of the Jewish people was a result of their sin against the Lord, so he spent much time in prayer, confessing the sin of Israel and praying for deliverance. Daniel knew the promises of God, and he knew that someday God would deliver Israel from captivity and that He would ultimately fulfill the promises which had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In Daniel, Chapter 9, Daniel prayed:

Daniel 9:15-19 (NKJ)
15 " . . . O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day-- we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
16 "O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.
17 "Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.
18 "O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.
19 "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name."

Oh, how we need to humble ourselves before the Lord in this way. When we face a world this is full of trouble and when we face problems that are too complex for us to understand or solve, we need to turn to the Lord, confess our sins and ask for deliverance.

But the complex problems of our world today really point to one thing, and that is that God is preparing this world for the great tribulation period. The Lord said that when the tribulation period comes, the tribulation of that day will be such as has not been since the beginning of the world.

Just think about that. That one statement speaks volumes because this world has already seen periods of tribulation and suffering which are almost unimaginable. Most of us don’t even want to think about the kinds of things that people have had to suffer through the centuries or even the suffering that is in our present world today. But whatever suffering this world has seen, it pales in comparison to the suffering that will take place during the tribulation period.

For instance, after the first trumpet, there will be hail and fire mixed with blood which will be thrown down upon the earth, and a third of the earth will be burned with fire. After the second trumpet, a great mountain of fire will be cast into the sea, and a third of all living things in the sea will die.

After the sixth trumpet, four angels will be released to stir up the armies of mankind, and they will gather an army of two hundred million soldiers. The Bible says that the heads of their horses will resemble the heads of lions, and out of their mouths will come fire, smoke and sulfur.

As a result of these three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur, a third of mankind will be killed. But then, the Bible says that:

Revelation 9:20-21 (NIV)
20 The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood-- idols that cannot see or hear or walk.
21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

It seems that these people will simply continue on with business as usual. They will continue on in their sin, without ever considering the fact that their suffering is a punishment from God. They will be ignorant of what God is doing, and that is something that God will not allow. He wants people to understand what He’s doing, and He wants people to know what their options are.

Therefore, just before the seventh trumpet, God will send two men to be His witnesses. These two men will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they will plainly declare that all of their suffering is a result of their rebellion against the true and the living God. So when the seventh trumpet sounds, and the seven bowls of the wrath of God are poured out upon the earth, the people will no longer be ignorant of their sin or of the fact that God is behind all of their suffering.

The Bible says that the seventh bowl of the wrath of God will bring about the greatest earthquake of all time. It will be of such magnitude that every island will disappear and many mountains will be leveled. Hugh hailstones of about a hundred pounds each will fall from the sky.

There will be tremendous suffering, but do you think that the people of the earth will repent? No, not at all. The Bible says that at this point, the people will know that God is causing their suffering and rather than repent, they will curse the Lord. I can just imagine the survivors in their ragged clothes, barely able to stand, but still shaking their fist at heaven and cursing God.

Well, beloved, the problems we face today are complex, and the suffering that we see is immense, but these things are simply a precursor to the suffering that this world is headed for. Today, we live in the age of grace, and at this point God is showing His longsuffering to mankind.

God is fully aware of the rage toward God that exists within the heart of man. God is fully aware that mankind in general has rejected Him as the creator of the universe. God is fully aware of the fact that mankind in general has rejected the Bible, which is God’s personal revelation of Himself. God is fully aware of the fact that mankind in general has rejected Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died upon the cross for our sins. God is aware of all these things, and yet the heavens are silent.

The question is, how long will God’s longsuffering continue? At what point will God say the time for vengeance has come. Even the saints in heaven will ask that question during the tribulation period. Revelation 6 says that when the Lord Jesus opened the fifth seal, John:

Revelation 6:9-10 (NKJ)
9 . . . saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

How long indeed? That is the question which many people have asked, but no one yet has been given the answer. We have no idea when the tribulation period will begin. As Daniel was confessing Israel’s sin and praying for God’s deliverance, God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Daniel about the things that would have to take place before the establishment of the everlasting kingdom, which, by the way, Daniel had already seen in many of his visions.

Daniel knew from Jeremiah’s prophecies that the Jews would return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity, but Gabriel went on to tell Daniel, in so many words, that the Messiah would appear in Israel 483 years after the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. However, he also said that the Messiah would be rejected and killed at that time. Gabriel then told Daniel that after the Messiah’s death, there was going to be a seven year period of desolation and suffering before the kingdom could be established.

It is obvious from this passage that Daniel was not shown anything about the period of time in which we live today. We have already seen a period of nearly 2000 years since the death of Christ, and the earth has yet to experience the kingdom.

The only scriptural explanation for this is found in Paul’s revelation concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. It was Paul who revealed the fact that Israel’s kingdom program had been set aside so that God could call out a body of believers in which there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, a body in which the Jews have no advantage over the Gentiles in terms of their relationship with God. Paul said that in this Body, Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Jews and of the same body.

Paul said specifically that this revelation concerning our present age and the Church of our present age was never revealed to anyone before it was revealed to him by God. Even the angel Gabriel did not know about this mystery when he spoke to Daniel about the events which would surely come to pass.

Today, we live in this mystery age, and we belong to this mystery church. We have no idea how long this age will last. It may end today, or it may continue for another thousand years, but if we look at the things that are happening in our world, it certainly seems that God is preparing this world for the tribulation period.

We know from the scriptures that at the end of this age, the Church will be caught up to be with Christ in the glory of heaven. Then, there will be seven years of tribulation before the Lord Jesus returns to the earth at His second coming. At that time, every eye shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven as Christ returns to the earth to destroy the antichrist and establish His earthly kingdom.

If you don’t know the Lord today, if you have never accepted God’s free gift of salvation, let me say to you as Paul said to the Corinthians, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

The judgment of the Lord is coming, but those who put their faith in Christ and His finished work upon the cross will be saved from the judgments of the tribulation period, and they will be saved from the eternal punishment of the lake of fire.

Well, I see that our time is gone for this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Thursday, October 26, 2006

One New Man (10-29-06)

One New Man
Bible Study Time 10-29-06

When Abraham was 85 years old, God told him that he was going to have a son. When Abraham believed the word of God, God counted Abraham as righteous. However, Abraham’s wife Sarah did not conceive a child for many years. Fourteen years later, when Abraham was 99 years old, he still had no child by Sarah, but it was at that time that God came to Abraham and told him that He was going to make an everlasting, unending covenant with him and with his descendants. Genesis 17 says:

Genesis 17:1-7 (NKJ)
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
2 "And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."
3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:
4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
5 "No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
6 "I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.
7 "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

Some people today think that God is completely through with the nation of Israel. They believe that God rejected the nation of Israel when Israel rejected and crucified the Lord. They believe that God has turned his back on Israel as a nation, and they believe that the blessings which were promised to Abraham have been given to us as members of the Church. They believe that our relationship with God is based on the covenant that God made with Abraham so many years ago.

To be honest, there are a few passages of scripture which seem to support this idea. In Romans, Chapter 2, Paul said:

Romans 2:28-29 (NKJ)
28 . . . he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

In Romans, Chapter 4, Paul brought to the forefront the fact that Abraham was saved, not by the Law and not by circumcision, but he was saved by grace through faith because he believed what God told him. Paul pointed out that Abraham was saved by faith before circumcision was given and before the Law was given. Then Paul asked:

Romans 4:9a (NKJ)
9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also?

In other words, if Abraham was saved by faith without circumcision and without the Law, then what would keep others from being saved the same way? Paul offered this conclusion beginning in verse 9:

Romans 4:9b-11 (NKJ)
9 . . . we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also,

So, Paul says that Abraham is the father of all those who believe the word of God and have the kind of faith that Abraham had. If we go back to Genesis 17, we see that God made His covenant with Abraham and his descendants. Therefore, if Abraham is our father, and we are the children of Abraham, this would bring us into this covenant relationship with God through Abraham.

However, this is one of those areas where we need to rightly divide the word of truth. Paul’s doctrine in the book of Romans needs to be seen in the light Paul’s Acts-period ministry. During the Acts-period, God sent Paul out as the Apostle to the Gentiles. He went out offering salvation to the Gentiles so that they could enter into the earthly kingdom which God had promised to Israel.

From the beginning, Paul stood firm on the issue of circumcision, saying that is was not appropriate to require the Gentiles to submit to circumcision. He said that the ritual of circumcision was given as a sign of the covenant between Abraham and God. Since the Gentiles were not participants in that covenant, the ritual of circumcision was not appropriate for them. In Acts 16, Paul allowed Timothy to be circumcised because Timothy’s mother was a Jew, but in Galatians, Chapter 2, Paul reported that Titus was not required to submit to circumcision because Titus was a Gentile.

When Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to defend this point of doctrine, James became convinced that Paul’s doctrine was correct. He realized that the Gentiles were not participants in the covenant but that they were to be blessed as a result of the covenant. James paraphrased the words of the prophet Amos who was speaking for God, saying:

Acts 15:16-17 (NKJ)
16 'After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up;
17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.'

If we go back to the book of Amos, we see that Amos actually said:

Amos 9:11-12 (NKJ)
11 "On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David . . .
12 That (My people) may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name," . . .

So Amos said that someday the saved Gentiles would become a possession of the nation of Israel, while James paraphrased Amos saying that someday the saved Gentiles would seek the Lord. Actually, James did no disservice to Amos because both statements are true. Isaiah confirmed that:

Isaiah 11:10 (NKJ)
10 " . . . in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious."

But the fact remains that the verse from which James actually quoted indicated that the saved Gentiles would become a possession of the nation of Israel, and it was on this basis that James was willing to accept the saved Gentiles of the Acts-period without circumcision.

Paul fully understood the political position that the Gentiles would hold in the kingdom. That’s why he said in Romans, Chapter 1, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and also the Greek. However, Paul did not see the saved Gentiles as second class citizens of the kingdom. On the contrary, he said that the saved Gentiles were indeed the spiritual children of Abraham because they were saved by faith just like Abraham was saved, and they were being offered a place in the kingdom which was promised to Abraham.

God made His covenant with Abraham and Abraham’s descendants. When God promised the land of Canaan to the Jews, that had nothing whatsoever to do with the Gentiles. That land was promised to the Jews, and God will someday give it to the Jews. That land will become an everlasting possession of the nation of Israel.

The Gentiles were not participants in the covenant, but from the beginning God promised that the Gentiles would be blessed as a result of the covenant. God simply promised the Jews that He was going to bless the Gentiles through the nation of Israel.

The saved Gentiles of the Acts-period will be among the saved Gentiles who will enter the kingdom after the tribulation period. They will inhabit the far corners of the earth, but they will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. As Zechariah said:

Zechariah 8:23 (NKJ)
23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"

During the kingdom, the land of Palestine will belong to the literal descendants of Abraham, and during Paul’s early, Act-period ministry, Paul had this kingdom in mind as he went out to the Gentiles, preaching the gospel of the grace of God.

In the book of Romans, Paul said that in a spiritual sense there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He told them that God offered His son, Jesus Christ, as the sacrifice for sin so that He could forgive their sins and still remain just. Those Gentiles who believed Paul’s message were given the promise of everlasting life and the hope of entering into the earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ.

However, during this period of time Paul repeatedly emphasized the Jewish position of privilege. In Romans 3, Paul said:

Romans 3:1-2 (NKJ)
1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.

In Romans 9, he said:

Romans 9:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;

In Romans 11, Paul confirmed the fact that God’s covenant with the Jews was still in effect when he said:

Romans 11:26-27 (NKJ)
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."

This verse is most certainly talking about the literal descendants of Abraham. In this chapter, Paul was addressing the fact that very few literal Jews were being saved. He said that the nation of Israel was the tree into which the Gentile believers were being grafted. He concluded that although many of the dead, Jewish branches were being broken off, the entire nation of Israel would someday turn to the Lord in faith.

This is not a reference to the Church of our present age. It would be impossible for all of the Church to someday be saved in the future. By definition, the Church is already saved. It makes no difference if a person goes to church or joins a church, no one is a member of God’s church without a personal experience of salvation through a personal faith in Jesus Christ, but all those who believe are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Church which is the Body of Christ.

The literal nation of Israel, on the hand, rejected Jesus Christ in Paul’s day, and for the most part, is still rejecting Christ today. But someday, the literal nation of Israel will come to the realization that Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God and that He came to the earth from heaven to shed His blood for the sins of the world. At that point Israel will be saved, and God will take away her sins for this is God’s covenant with them.

All of the spiritual blessings of Paul’s Acts-period message belong to us today. We are saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ and in His finished work upon the cross. But Paul’s Acts-period message stands in contrast to his message for today. After the Acts-period, Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, and in those books he revealed the Church which is the Body of Christ.

In those epistles, Paul never mentioned Abraham’s name even once. As members of the Church, the Body of Christ, we do not come to God as the children of Abraham. We come to God on the basis of the fact that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Before Abraham was, we were, in the mind of God, predestined to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, Paul referred to the Jewish covenants only once. In Ephesians, Chapter 2, Paul said that we, Gentiles, were in times past:

Ephesians 2:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Then he said:

Ephesians 2:13 (NKJ)
13 But now in Christ Jesus (we) who once were far off have been brought near (to God, by what? By the covenants? No.) by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:14-16 (NKJ)
14 For (Christ) Himself is our peace, who has made both (Jews and Gentiles) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

Today, the covenants that God made with Israel have been set aside. It was the covenants that made such a strong distinction between the nation of Israel and the rest of the world. But now those covenants have been set aside. That which put the Gentile at a disadvantage during the Old Testament and during the Acts-period has now been set aside. God is now calling Jews and Gentiles alike into one new man, into one body through the cross.

Well, I see that our time is gone for this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Passover (10-22-06)

The Passover
Bible Study Time 10-22-06

Last week we looked at the fact that Abraham was saved by faith. God declared him to be righteous because He believed in the Lord, and he demonstrated his faith by believing what God said. In Romans, Chapter 4, Paul pointed out that Abraham believed God and was saved by faith before he was circumcised and before the Law was given. This illustrates for us the fact that salvation by faith has nothing to do with religious ceremonies or with our own good works. Paul went on to declare in Ephesians 2:

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

Abraham was saved by grace through faith, but after Abraham accepted that he was going to have a son, the Lord also revealed to Abraham that his descendants were going to be strangers in a strange land and that they would serve the people of that land for four hundred years.

In fulfillment of God’s promise, Abraham did have a son, and Abraham named that son Isaac. Then Isaac had a son named Jacob whose name was later changed to Israel. Israel then had twelve sons, and their families grew into the twelve tribes of Israel.

Just as God had predicted, the twelve tribes of Israel moved down into Egypt where they became the slaves of the Egyptians for four hundred years. As the four hundred years of prophecy drew to a close, God started setting the stage for Israel’s return to the promised land.

God determined that Moses would be the man who would deliver Israel from Egypt. When Moses was born, he was protected by Pharaoh’s daughter and ultimately raised in Pharaoh’s house, but Moses had to leave Egypt because he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Jew. It looked like Moses would never have anything to do with the nation of Israel, but after spending 40 years on the backside of the desert, God called Moses to return to Egypt and lead the children of Israel back to the land of Canaan.

When Moses returned to Egypt, Pharaoh would not let the people go, so God sent many plagues upon the Egyptians. He turned the water into blood. He sent plagues of frogs and gnats and flies. Boils appeared on humans and animals alike. There were plagues of hail and locusts and darkness. Then, finally, the Lord said that He was going to send one final plague, and that after that plague, the children of Israel would leave the land of Egypt. Before this last plague, Moses went to Pharaoh and said:

Exodus 11:4-8 (NLT)
4 . . . "This is what the LORD says: About midnight I will pass through Egypt.
5 All the firstborn sons will die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the oldest son of his lowliest slave. Even the firstborn of the animals will die.
6 Then a loud wail will be heard throughout the land of Egypt; there has never been such wailing before, and there never will be again.
7 But among the Israelites it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark. Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites.
8 All the officials of Egypt will come running to me, bowing low. 'Please leave!' they will beg. 'Hurry! And take all your followers with you.' Only then will I go!" Then, burning with anger, Moses left Pharaoh's presence.

Moses then went to the children of Israel and said:

Exodus 12:2,3,5,6 (NLT)
2 "From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you.
3 Announce to the whole community that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice . . .
5 This animal must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no physical defects.
6 "Take special care of these lambs until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then each family in the community must slaughter its lamb.

This lamb was to be a picture of the Lord Jesus whom God gave as the spotless Lamb of God who came into the world to shed His blood for the sins of the world. Therefore, the lamb which was selected there in Egypt had to be watched for three days, from the tenth day to the fourteenth day, to make sure that it had no disease. It had to be without spot and without blemish.

After the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the Apostle Peter said:

1 Peter 1:18-19 (NKJ)
18 . . . you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
19 but (you were redeemed) with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Just like the lamb in Egypt was watched for 3 days, Jesus Christ was placed under the scrutiny of the scribes and Pharisees for 3 years. Jesus went about healing and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and at the end of that three years, they arrested Jesus and brought Him before the High Priest. However, they had no legitimate charge of wrongdoing that they could bring against Him. He was without spot or blemish. Mark 14 and verse 55 says:

Mark 14:55-56 (NKJ)
55 Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none.
56 For many bore false witness against Him, but their testimonies did not agree.

After three years of intensive scrutiny, the Jewish religious leaders could not find one charge that they could bring against the Lord Jesus.

In Exodus, Chapter 12, God gave further instructions to Moses, saying:

Exodus 12:7-10 (NKJ)
7 'And (the people) shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
8 'Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 'Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire-- its head with its legs and its entrails.
10 'You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.

After the lamb was slaughtered, its blood was placed upon the doorposts and on the lintel of the doors, and then the lamb was to be roasted in the fire. In this same way, the Lord Jesus had to shed His blood and endure the fires of hell in order to pay for our sins. Before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus prayed,

Matthew 26:39 (NKJ)
39 . . . "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."

The Lord Jesus came to do the Father’s will, and there was no other way to save us from our sins. The Lord Jesus had to take our judgment upon Himself to deliver us from the curse of sin. The lamb in Egypt could not be eaten raw, and neither could it be boiled in water. It had to go through the fire. Only then could it be taken into the home and eaten.

Accordingly, when the blood of Christ is applied to the door of a believer’s heart, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is able to enter into that heart. On the cross, the Lord Jesus accomplished everything that was required to prepare our hearts to be the dwelling place of God. Paul said (I Corinthians 3:16), “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

At the first Passover, the spotless lamb was sacrificed. It was roasted in the fire, and then it was taken into the home where it was eaten. Jesus said:

John 6:51 (NKJ)
51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

When we partake of Jesus Christ, the living bread, we are nourished and strengthened so that we can do all things through Christ who strengths us. However, before we can partake of His spiritual life, we must believe that He went through the fires of hell and that He suffered there on our behalf. We must open our hearts to His Spirit so that the life of Jesus Christ can flow in and through us, and so that we can show the light of Christ to those around us.

When Moses talked to the people about eating the lamb, he said (Exodus 12:11), “And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD'S Passover.”

As they ate the lamb, they needed to be ready to travel. God was going to deliver them from the bondage of the Egyptians, and they needed to have their robes tied up and cinched with a belt around the waist. This was important so that as they moved rapidly out of Egypt, they would not stumble and fall.

After we have put our trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and after we have opened our hearts to His Spirit, we must have our waste gird about with the truth of God’s word. Without an understanding of God’s word, we are doomed to stumble and fall in our walk with the Lord.

As we feast upon the word of God, we become partakers in the life of Christ. This is how we open our hearts to Jesus Christ, by feasting upon the word. Jesus Christ is the living word of God, and it is the Spirit of Christ who brings to life the written word.

In our present day and age, we gain access to Christ through the written word of God. As we read it and study it, the Holy Spirit interprets it and applies it to our hearts. As we study the word rightly divided, we show ourselves approved unto God as workman who do not need to be ashamed. (II Timothy 2:15)

As the Jews in Egypt ate the lamb, they were to have their sandals on. Likewise, as we feast upon the word of God, we are to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace so that wherever God sends us we will be able to effectively share the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the gospel of peace.

Don’t you like that expression, the gospel of peace. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly is the gospel of peace. There can be no peace in this world without Jesus Christ, and there can be no peace in our hearts without Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life, and He is the One who gives the peace that passes understanding.

As they ate the Passover lamb in Egypt, they were to have their staff in their hand. The staff is a symbol of authority. It is used for stability, and it can be used as a weapon. Likewise, the open Bible is our symbol of authority today. In spite of the fact that it was written by 40 different men over 1500 years, it has never been proven wrong in any of its historical or scientific facts. Approximately 2500 prophecies appear in the Bible and about 2000 of them have already been fulfilled to the letter. When we speak the words of the Bible, we can speak with authority because:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJ)
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Bible is like the staff in that it gives us stability in our lives. The devil is the master of confusion and yet the word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4 says:

Hebrews 4:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

When we get to know the Bible, we not only come to an understand of who God is, but we gain insight into who we are. Our peace with God flows from the spiritual unity which the Holy Spirit creates within us. The Holy Spirit takes a life that is fragmented and distorted and reshapes it into an integrated whole. This is what we call integrity. The Holy Spirit gives us integrity, and the result is a life which is stable even in unstable and stressful times.

Back in Egypt, God told the children of Israel:

Exodus 12:12,13 (NLT)
12 On that night (when you observe the Passover) I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn sons and firstborn male animals in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the LORD!
13 The blood you have smeared on your doorposts will serve as a sign. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Today, we live in an age of grace. God is not overtly demonstrating His wrath and His anger against those who live in sin, but someday the judgment of the Lord will come, and he who has the blood of Jesus Christ applied to his heart will be protected when the day of judgment comes.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23) By nature we are far from God and from His salvation but now in Christ Jesus we who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)

Colossians 1:13-14 (NKJ)
13 (God) has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

God is saying to us today, when I see the blood I will pass over you.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

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