Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 31. Jos 1:16-18; survey of Heb.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 31. 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.

 

Fear and anxiety cripple (make lame) the spiritual life. Gone on long enough the injury will be unrecoverable (put out of joint).

 

The fear and anxiety from the suffering they have gone through has made lame their spiritual lives, and if they continue for too long in their despair over the troubles of life they are in danger of having their spiritual lives put out of joint, referring to an unrecoverable injury.

 

And so, despite the persecution and even if there is divine discipline as well, they must keep pursuing. In specific he mentions two things - agape love and practical sanctification.

 

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.

 

MAT 5:6

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

 

This vision of the Lord isn't some extra special blessing of the spiritual life, it is the spiritual life; it's essence.

 

MAT 5:8

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

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;

 

1CO 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,

 

1CO 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

 

1CO 6:11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

 

Clearly the unbeliever, which is the majority of people in this world that live in these lifestyles, has no inheritance with God. He has rejected the Son of God sent by the Father and revealed by the Holy Spirit. The real importance of these verses is the plain truth that if the unbeliever has no inheritance with God then why should a believer continue to live in such a lifestyle? Logically we must conclude that there is no joy or prosperity in it. Plus, we also know from the scripture that a believer who continues in the lifestyle of the unbeliever, unsanctified in life, jeopardizes a portion of his inheritance, how much of which is uncertain until the Bema seat of Christ. For certain, a part of his inheritance he will not see, is seeing the Lord in time through the eyes of his heart.

 

The unbeliever has no inheritance and the believer who pursues unrighteousness has put a certain portion of his inheritance in jeopardy. He will not see the Lord in time.

 

If the church condones any type of sin because of popular opinion the church becomes partner to hindering a person from seeing the Lord in time. Sin is away from God while sanctification is towards God. The church hurts people in the long run by condoning certain lifestyles that God says is clearly against Him. And as our passage will show us, such a consolation of sin in the church becomes a root of poison that defiles many. It is not love to condone sin for some so that they feel better and come to church with the result that the souls of many more are polluted or defiled.

 

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.

 

Various Christians have tried all kinds of reasoning to get around this, but it is a plain fact. It is better to admit to yourself that you reject the principle in practice and know it to be absolutely true rather than attempt some end around self-justification. To fool oneself is to be the ultimate fool.

 

This is in the OT and repeated in the NT.

 

LEV 11:44-45

'For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. 'For I am the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; thus you shall be holy for I am holy.'"

 

1PE 1:13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

1PE 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,

 

1PE 1:15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;

 

1PE 1:16 because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

 

1PE 1:17 And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth;

 

1PE 1:18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,

 

1PE 1:19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

 

1PE 1:20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you

 

1PE 1:21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

 

1PE 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,

 

1PE 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.

 

1PE 1:24 For,

"All flesh is like grass,

And all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

And the flower falls off,

 

1PE 1:25 But the word of the Lord abides forever. "

And this is the word which was preached to you.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

HEB 4:2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

 

HEB 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,

"As I swore in My wrath,

They shall not enter My rest,"

although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

 

HEB 4:4 For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works";

 

HEB 4:5 and again in this passage, "They shall not enter My rest."

 

HEB 4:6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,

 

HEB 4:7 He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,

"Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts."

 

HEB 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

 

HEB 4:9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

 

HEB 4:10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

 

HEB 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.

 

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;