Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 123 - Essential qualities of leadership: Prayer.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 123 - Essential qualities of leadership: Prayer.

 

Announcementsopening prayer:

 

 

When the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical. By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in Thomas Paine’s bestselling pamphlet “Common Sense,” published in early 1776. On June 7, when the Continental Congress met at the PennsylvaniaState House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee’s resolution, but appointed a five-man committee-including Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York-to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain.

 

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” On July 4th, the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence,

 

A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail: The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

 

[Declaration of Independence]

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

 

For most of human history, such governments have not been in existence, but no matter. The Lord Jesus Christ has set men free, whether they are called slaves on earth or free men. Under the tyranny of  Egypt God brought His angel of death as judgment and those who had the blood of the lamb painted on their doorposts were set free from bondage and given passage to the Promised Land. Each man's heart has been set free. He has been set free from himself, the world, and the power of the devil. No government can give or assure this, but the Prince of Peace has done so through His own blood, His own willing sacrifice.

 

We have been studying prayer, for the second time in the past few months. In prayer we see that God has freed us from our alienation from Him as fallen and has invited us into the very headquarters of His will and purpose. We are still weak in many ways but He has also freed us from this, helping our weakness by His own indwelling us. God the Holy Spirit helps our weakness.

 

So, not only are we free, we are free to pursue His happiness. Our spiritual lives and our spiritual freedom have been guaranteed, not protected by a government, but protected by Him.

 

1PE 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

 

1PE 1:4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

 

1PE 1:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

 

ROM 8:26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

 

He helps our weakness and teaches us how to pray as we pray filled with Him and He intercedes for us.

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COMMUNION JULY 4, 2016

 

The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were not propitiatory, meaning, they did not satisfy the justice of God concerning sin. They were done by God's command and so they gave Him pleasure, but only the pleasure of knowing what they represented. They were not the actual atonement for sin, rather, they pointed to the One who was to come who would fully atone for all the sins of mankind, and in this, they gave pleasure to God.

 

The Old Testament was a pale shadow or a rough outline of the sharp reality that was to come in the person of Jesus Christ.

 

The sacrifices of the Levitical priests only portrayed something real. They could never completely cleanse the conscience of man concerning sin because they were never final. Year by year and day by day the blood of animals was shed for sins and the same was followed the next day and the next year. They served as a reminder of sin as well as a reminder that an innocent, spotless Lamb was to come who would remove sin once and for all.

 

The sacrifice was instituted right in the beginning, immediately after our fall from the perfect Garden of Eden. God provided two cherubim to stand at the eastern gate of the garden and there, between the cherubim, as it would be depicted in Moses' ark of the covenant, the first sacrifices were made. Adam, Eve, Cain, and Able were instructed in the meaning of the sacrifice.

 

GEN 3:15 "And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel."

 

God Himself was the instructor, performing the first sacrifice and using the very skin of the innocent slain animal to cover the nakedness of the first two sinners.

 

GEN 3:21 And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

 

Cain refused the animal sacrifice and brought to God the fruit (literally) of his own labor. This was unacceptable to God. If God had accepted it He would have justified the work of man, which would indicate that man could earn his own salvation - his own freedom. Only the innocent blood of an animal, a picture of a substitute who would die in the place of the sinner, was acceptable to God.

 

The sacrifices at the eastern gate as well as all those that were properly offered afterwards reached an important point in the first Passover. That night, wherever the blood of the Pascal lamb was painted on the doorposts of a house, the angel of death would pass by. Where it was not, the angel would enter the house and the first born male of that house would die. The next day Israel was set free from slavery in Egypt and were on their way in freedom to the Promised Land. In that land a city would be conquered by a king and built up into a capital. In that city the king would put the ark of the covenant and the sacrifices would commence on the mercy seat of the ark between the two cherubim. The city was Jerusalem and the king was David. David was promised that he would have a Son who would sit on the throne of Israel forever. This Son, one thousand years later, would come to Jerusalem and become the once and for all perfect Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Passover was fulfilled in three hours on Calvary, where Jesus Christ would lay down His life for the sins of the whole world.

 

When the Son of God became the incarnate Messiah, taking humanity upon Himself, He performed His priestly work. He did not offer more animals, but offered His own physical body instead. He is the one true High Priest but He never once entered the Holy of Holies with animal blood to sprinkle upon the mercy seat between the two cherubim. He did however allow Himself to be nailed to a cross outside of the city and there the blood of Christ, His judgment for the sins of the whole world, would occur once and for all.

 

Since He has dealt with sin completely and finally, there is to be no more consciousness of sin in the form of guilt or condemnation. This in no way condones sin, but rather it sets us free from it.

 

This is a vital part of our Christian lives. To not understand it is to come short of the grace of God and fail to live the Christ life that was given to each believer. If a believer wants to be set free from the command of sin over his life, he will find it in this truth.

 

"Today, the believer no longer has to feel the guilt of sin. He might still be conscious of it but the consciousness of the guilt of sin is gone; the guilt of sin has been taken away." [A. Fruchtenbaum]

 

We now, with the deliverance from sin and death, walk in newness of life and perform the work that is of divine origin - serving the living God.

 

There were different types of sacrifices in the Old Testament.  Every species of sacrifice had its own primary, fundamental idea.

 

burnt-offering was the offering of worship

 

peace-offering was the knitting of fellowship

 

the meal-offering was sanctifying consecration

 

sin-offering was atonement

 

guilt-offering was compensatory payment.

 

The self-sacrifice of the Servant of Jehovah may be presented under all of these points of view. It is the complete anti-type, the truth, the object, and the end of all the sacrifices.

 

These wonderful things are all for man by means of Him. We are atoned, our sins have been paid for, we can now worship Him, fellowship with Him, we are sanctified, and all things we have against God has been paid for.

 

The contrast in these OT sacrifices and Christ’s sacrifice is between the involuntary sacrifice of dumb animals and sacrifice into which obedience enters. It is the sacrifice of a rational and spiritual being, which is not passive in death, but in dying makes the will of God His own.

 

GAL 5:1

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

 

ROM 8:2

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

 

HEB 10:8-9

"Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

 

1CO 11:23-26 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.