Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 32. Jos 1:16-18; survey of Heb.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 32. JOS 1:16-18; survey of Heb.   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

HEB 12:12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

 

HEB 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

 

HEB 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

 

Added to the pursuit of peace, which is a state of freedom from anxiety and inner turmoil; soul prosperity; harmonious relationships between men, between God and man; a sense of rest and contentment, is the pursuit of sanctification, separation from the world. Without this no man shall see the Lord in time.

 

This is practical sanctification in time, set apart from the world system and sin nature and unto the plan of God. Without this no man shall see the Lord.

 

Neither Paul or the writer of Hebrews is coming remotely close to encouraging antinomianism. Truly, a life of sanctification for the believer is of ultimate importance, and though he will fail, in grace he will recover and keep pursuing without guilt or self-condemnation. God didn't ask us to be perfect but to pursue it.

 

One cannot deny the fact that those who have been called to God's holiness must be holy as He is holy, LEV 11:44-45; 1PE 1:15-16.

 

HEB 12:15 See to it [oversee or look diligently] that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

 

It is clear that if a believer is going to pursue sanctification that he must remove any tendency that is hostile to that pursuit.

 

"comes short" - to come late or to be behind. This would be the case of the believer who did not receive all that God desired to give him in grace.

 

Grace refers to all that God freely gives to the believer. Through faith in Christ we entered into the arena of God's grace and it is by faith that we continue to receive from God the fullness of Christ's inheritance. This same word was used by the writer in chapter 4 in reference to the exodus generation.

 

HEB 4:1

Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.

 

While we pursue other things besides sanctification there are things in the life that is Christ that we are missing. We all fail, but if the pursuit of other things, earthly things, is the lifestyle of the believer then he misses out on much of God's gifts. It not that God withholds them and is waiting for good behavior. God has freely given these things but the believer who pursues the things of the world has walked away from them.

 

ROM 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

 

For instance, God has given us His love at salvation.

 

ROM 5:5

the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

 

The believer can pursue that love or not. If he fails to pursue it then he will never know of it, he will never walk in it, and he therefore will fail to know the depths of the person of Christ. He will never know a true relationship with another person as God has designed for him and he will never know an intimate relationship with God and never know true peace. Now, all these wonderful things and more were given to him and were there for him to walk in, but instead he chose to walk after something else. All he had to do was enter into the subject of agape love in faith with the Holy Spirit and then apply it by faith with the Holy Spirit, but he came up short.

 

EPH 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,

 

EPH 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

 

EPH 5:17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

 

EPH 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

 

EPH 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs [agape and chara], singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord [eirene and chara];

 

EPH 5:20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;

 

EPH 5:21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

 

GAL 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

 

GAL 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

 

GAL 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

 

GAL 5:19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,

 

GAL 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,

 

GAL 5:21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

These things describe the lives of the unbelievers who have no inheritance and are not in the kingdom of God. If the believer pursues these instead of sanctification he puts a portion of his inheritance in jeopardy. If this is the life of the unbeliever, in which we formally walked, then what sense does it make to pursue them as believers. We conclude logically that there is no life or soul prosperity (peace) in them.

 

GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

 

GAL 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

 

GAL 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

God has certainly given us all things, we fall short of these things when we fail to pursue them by faith.

 

2CO 6:1

And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain

 

GAL 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

 

"Fallen" means to fall out from. It is used of a withering flower. It obviously is not losing salvation but falling out from the gifts of God. In this case they left the gifts of God and pursued justification by means of the Mosaic Law.

 

GAL 5:5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

 

GAL 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

 

GAL 5:7 You were running well; who hindered you [knees that are feeble] from obeying the truth?

 

Communion 10/04/15

 

Christ showed us a life of obedience to the Father through faith. That obedience led Him to Calvary and on the cross into separation from His Father and the loss of His joy. His obedience led Him to sacrifice His body and His spiritual life, but yet temporarily.

 

In victory He would ascend from spiritual death to commiting His spirit into the hands of the Father. In victory His body would be resurrected. In victory this body would ascend into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God.

 

He descended from deity to humanity to death and then ascended to heaven and power over all rule and authority. By obedience to the Father His reward was great.

 

Yet His obedience also meant reward for others. All believers are blessed through Him, the author and perfector of faith.

 

By faith in obedience to the Father He gave His body - for you. By faith in obedience to the Father He gave His spiritual life, the cup - for you.

 

When any of us by faith live in obedience to the Father, not only is the tremendous blessing from Christ realized in time, but there is also rich blessing to others. Your spouse, your children, your fellow believer in your local assembly, your neighbor, and your nation are blessed.

 

MAR 10:29-31

"Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, 30 but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 "But many who are first, will be last; and the last, first."

 

We seem to always think of the many fold houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, and children, and farms as added to us, but do we realize that we become a blessing to them? The last, the servant, will be first, the most blessed, and those blessing will overflow and affect these who are around him.

 

1 Co 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; 24 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."  25 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."  26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.