Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 18 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 18 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.  

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

JOH 17:13 "But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

 

JOH 17:14 "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

JOH 17:15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

 

JOH 17:16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

JOH 17:17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

 

JOH 17:18 "As You did send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

 

JOH 17:19 "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

 

JOH 17:20 "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

 

JOH 17:21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You did send Me.

 

JOH 17:22 "And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;

 

The glory given to us is the essence of Christ. We are clothed with Him and follow His light, His way of glory. Every believer lives in the high plains of heaven and so are unified to the extent of God the Father and Son.

 

JOH 17:23 I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that You did send Me, and did love them, even as You did love Me.

 

When Christians get into the same squabbles as fallen man, over some depraved definition of good and evil, they do not look sanctified from the world and sanctified in the truth.

 

JOH 17:24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me; for You did love Me before the foundation of the world.

 

The love of the Father for the Son resulted in a perfect, predestinated plan. Our union with Christ receives such a plan and in it, and in Him, we behold through the eyes of our soul, the very glory of God.

 

JOH 17:25 "O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You did send Me;

 

JOH 17:26 and I have made Your name [person] known to them, and will make it known [the church age]; that the love wherewith You did love Me may be in them, and I in them."

 

The plan of the Father was for Christ to submit to the authority of fallen man and his erroneous ideas of good and evil. In this He suffered, but blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

 

It was not the plan of the Father for Christ to stand up for His earthly rights in the midst of injustice, but to bear witness of the truth within that injustice. All believers are of the truth and hear this, His, voice.

 

JOH 18:33 Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus, and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?"

 

This is a yes or no question, but Jesus doesn't answer it. He desires to know about Pilate's soul.

 

JOH 18:34 Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?" 

 

JOH 18:35 Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You up to me; what have You done?"

 

Like so many other questions, Jesus doesn't answer it. He speaks from the high plains of heaven.

 

JOH 18:36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 

 

JOH 18:37 Pilate therefore said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 

 

JOH 18:38 Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"

 

Pilate honestly admits that he does not know what is the ultimate truth and it may be that as a hardened soldier that he has come to see that no one can know it and so he is cynical concerning the subject. Pilate would know as a Roman commander that sword, shield, and spear killed, conquered, plundered, and possessed people with all sorts of faiths in truths, be they philosophical or religious. Their truth did not stand against a Roman army. As an experienced veteran in the Roman army he has been exposed to Greek philosophy, eastern philosophy, Persian Zoroastrianism, Roman philosophy, Caesar worship, Egyptian religion, and more as a smart man he can likely see the inconsistencies in them as they all struggle to gain men's hearts. All of them had a definition of good that claimed to draw man closer to unification with his source and with himself and all of them bowed before the might and glory of Rome. And he was right. These so-called truths all arose from the depravity of man and even the Jewish religion had become so pregnant with man's depravity that no power was left in it. The only people and the only faith that was true was in Israel, but she had become so apostate that she had no power of truth. Yet now the One with truth stood in front of him. Jesus had what was more powerful than one hundred Roman Empires, the truth from heaven. The Roman Empire would be in a steep decline only three hundred years from this time but the truth would continue on forever.

 

Christ reveals to Pilate that He is from heaven and bears the truth from heaven, but Pilate only sees this as another religion or philosophy based on man's knowledge of good and evil and he lets this salvation drift right by him.

 

Christ came into the world to do the will of the Father and by that will He sanctified us and entered us into the Holy of Holies in heaven with Him where there is not a whisper of man's deprived notion of good and evil.

 

HEB 10:5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

"Sacrifice and offering You hast not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me;

 

HEB 10:6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.

 

HEB 10:7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come  (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God.'"

 

HEB 10:8 After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor has You taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),

 

HEB 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will." He takes away the first [the Law] in order to establish the second [Him].

 

"To do Your will." The believer no longer lives in the domain of man's faulty knowledge of good and evil. He now resides in the will of God: singular, clear, pure.

 

At the beginning of Christ's ministry He was tempted by Satan. Satan tempted Jesus' relation to the plan and will of the Father and Christ repelled each temptation with the will of the Father as spoken in His word.

 

HEB 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

HEB 10:11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

 

HEB 10:12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,

 

HEB 10:13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

 

HEB 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified [in Him you are complete].

 

HEB 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

 

HEB 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them,"

He then says,

 

His laws, His will found in the word of God, are to be etched upon our minds and hearts. We have a singular will to follow.

 

The imagery of having God's laws written right on our hearts means that they are the first thing we see and all other things are seen through them as if they are the lens of the eye.

 

HEB 10:17 "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

 

Grace is added here so that the believer will not grow weary or lose heart. We will not perfectly follow His will, but so we can continue to strive after His will, there is the complete forgiveness of sins and the promise that God does not remember them to judge them.