Names of God; part 31. Being a son in the house of YHVH.

Title: Names of God; part 31. Being a son in the house of YHVH.

 

 

We must draw a line of resistance in training our appetites, a line of dependence upon God, and a line of wisdom in true understanding.

 

EPH 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

We do not do the works to become God's workmanship. We are made what we are by means of grace through the sacrifice of our Lord and as such we then walk in the works foreordained.

 

We are to walk in them. The locative is used, which gives the idea of a sphere.

 

"walk in them" - locative of sphere - We are always surrounded by the possibility that a divine work will come upon us and open its opportunity for us to fulfill.

 

GAL 6:10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

 

COL 4:5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.

 

COL 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.

 

We were given an invisible sphere to walk in, our very own plan, predestined by God for each of us, guided by the Holy Spirit and the word, and filled with the good works from God.

 

Although our service and work may seem to produce little or no result, we press on in them knowing that our recompense is with God.

 

ISA 49:1 Listen to Me, O islands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called Me from the womb;

From the body of My mother He named Me.

 

The prophecy is of our Lord and the evangelization of the Gentiles is in view.

 

ISA 49:2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;

In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me,

And He has also made Me a select arrow;

He has hidden Me in His quiver.

 

ISA 49:3 And He said to Me, "You are My Servant, Israel,

In Whom I will show My glory."

 

This Servant is distinct from the nation.

 

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ISA 49:5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him [redemption of Israel]

(For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,

And My God is My strength),

 

ISA 49:6 He says, "It is too small a thing that

You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations

So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

 

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ISA 49:4 But I said, "I have toiled in vain,

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,

And My reward with My God."

 

This was not an utterance of unbelief or of despair, for immediately the heart expresses the assurance of the truth that the justice due Him and His reward are with God. Even our Lord experienced this rejection of His person and His work. Our own work often seems to produce little or no result. In addition to ineffectiveness there come circumstances of extreme difficulty and trial, which tend to weigh down the heart. And if Satan could accomplish his purpose, he would use all this to cast us down into despair and if possible cause us to cease from the work and turn back through perplexity and distress. Here then is a passage of prophecy designed by the Spirit of God to give us to consider all such circumstances in the light of God's all-wise counsels, so that while in the midst of conflict we may be encouraged to share His vision and know that our judgment is with Him, and that with Him is recompense for our seemingly fruitless work.

 

Good works are the very element of our lives. They are the fruit produced by the healthy branch. We were created for this very purpose.

 

The branch of the vine has only one purpose.

 

To toss production or the call for production out of the Christian way of life is to deny the very purpose of our salvation by grace. The creature who works the works of God by grace glorifies God fully. For a creature, dead in his sins, to be so transformed that he performs divine deeds glorifies God to the maximum. Who could refute that God was worthy of praise when such a thing occurs?

 

2CO 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

 

1CO 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder [Greek: architekon] I laid a foundation [literally: I placed a stone or cornerstone], and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.

 

1CO 3:11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

 

The imagery used by the Holy Spirit is that of a skillful builder who carefully designed a structure and then put the cornerstone in the precise spot. The building will not be finished by him but he has left behind the instructions of blueprint of the structure, which must be followed precisely.  

 

When Paul refers to "another" building upon it, he is referring to the pastors that will come after him.

 

1CO 3:12 Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

 

1CO 3:13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

 

If we continue the interpretation of this passage with the pastors that followed Paul in mind, we see that one aspect of it is current in time and on the earth. The pastor who builds the church with gold, silver, and precious stones is one who teaches the truths of the word of God without any humanistic interpretations or liberal nonsense and he leads with humility and service. He makes the church to be only about the word of God and he insures that all fellowship or service is solely based upon the word of God.

 

When fire comes upon such a church, it will remain. The fire would speak of the trial and tribulation that would come upon one or all of the members. The fire tests the quality of the work. The work was the seed of truth sown in the good soil. When the rain and the wind and the drought came, the house did not fall and the tree bore greenery and fruit.

 

However, when the pastor fills the church with wood, hay, and straw, he is teaching humanistic nonsense, moral cultism, relativism, salvation by law and by works, etc. In other words, the hearts of the listeners who remain are not filled with truth and when the fire comes in the form of tribulation and trial, the tree will dry up and the church will fall. Such a church may physically remain and overtly seem quite successful, but it is not truly a church. It is nothing more than a place where people gather once in a while to seek personal, earthly desire.

 

1CO 3:14 If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.

 

1CO 3:15 If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.

 

Yet, as we have studied the passage in the past, it also has an application to the age to come in heaven.

 

2CO 5:10

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

 

We must all appear before the Bema of Christ, the place of evaluation. Just as the church built on truth will remain so will all the divine works of the believer in time. The fruit of the believer is God's fruit and God would never disregard or discard His own fruit.