Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 20 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 20 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.  

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

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.

 

The believer's action has become entirely unquestioning; he is entirely devoted to his action and filled with it.

 

The believer's action is no longer one possibility among many, but one thing, the important thing, the will of God.

 

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,

 

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. No believer will ever perfectly follow His will at all times, but so we can continue to strive after His will despite our failures, there is the complete forgiveness of sins and the promise that God does not remember them to judge them.

 

I can recover His will in grace without guilt or condemnation. Man's faulty knowledge of good and evil will certainly condemn the believer for failure, but for the believer to defend himself or to give an excuse is to dwell in the lower plain of the world's deep ignorance. He is above the knowledge of good and evil in Christ and so takes the accusation and bears it without self-defense, knowing that it is the Lord who truly bears the burden of it and who defends him. What gain is it to a believer to be acquitted from a worldly condemnation by the world itself? As a citizen of heaven, why would he desire justification from worldly minds?

 

The believer residing in man's knowledge of good and evil will condemn himself for his failures and he will listen to the voices of others who condemn him since that thinking only judges. The believer beholding the will of God will ignore condemnation and press on toward the upward call.

 

ZEC 3:1-2

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?"

 

HEB 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin [reminder of guilt].

 

HEB 10:19 Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,

 

HEB 10:20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

 

HEB 10:21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

 

HEB 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

Evil conscience = knowledge of self, others, the world, and God through a fallen concept of good and evil.

 

HEB 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

 

Our hope is that our following God's plan and revealing Christ by revealing His truth alone is the path of glory despite the hatred and persecution of the world which is wrapped up in a defunct brand of good and evil and by this hope we hold fast, hold down with a white knuckled grasp, our confession of Him while we constantly rely upon His promises.

 

This is unity with God and with ourselves - His promises and our hope result in confession of His truth and thus, production of the fruit of righteousness.

 

HEB 10:24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,

 

HEB 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

 

Our unity with God and unity within ourselves results in unity with one another.

 

1JO 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

 

1JO 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;

 

1JO 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

 

1JO 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

 

1JO 4:5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.

 

1JO 4:6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

 

1JO 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

 

1JO 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 

1JO 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

 

His life is not the life of the world.

 

In essence all fallen men are Pharisees who at some level seek salvation in their own definition of good when true good is only found in the person of Christ.

 

All fallen men are to some extent Pharisees. They each have a knowledge of good and evil and by it they are judges who judge themselves, others, situations, and God. Society and culture label them as good or bad judges or even indifferent, but they are each judges none the less. The wise, noble, and strong of 1Co 1 are those who are so in man's knowledge and ways of good and evil.  

 

MAT 7:1 "Do not judge lest you be judged."

 

From the only one who had unity with God, He strikes a blow at the heart of every man. He is not exhorting us to be forbearing or patient or wise in judging others in the area of good or evil. He flat out states that we are not to do it at all.