Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 34 - Predestination

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 34 - Predestination - Beholding God's glory.

Announcements / opening prayer:

Glorified: The believer shares in God's glory, which is all the goodness that He is. It is to be shared in time through spiritual growth and will ultimately be shared in heaven.

Paul saw firsthand the victory over the enemies of the gospel.

2Co 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

2Co 2:15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

We reveal the glory of God in every place and God leads us in triumph. Both the glory and the triumph do not depend upon us, but on Him, yet we work diligently and joyously among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. It is not a paradox to work diligently and joyously and not have the results depend upon you.

2Co 2:16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

2Co 2:17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

2Co 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some [false teachers peddling the word], letters of commendation to you or from you?

2Co 3:2 You are our letter [letter of commendation], written in our hearts [confirming to Paul and his men the blessing of their ministry], known and read by all men [living letters introduce Christ to all they meet];

2Co 3:3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

Human letters are written with ink that fades. They are only read by a few. They can be destroyed and discarded. But the Christian is alive, he does not fade, he continues to be around many people and so he is read by many. What he knows is not written with ink and if it remains on the paper that's all it will ever be. What he knows and understands is written on his heart by the Holy Spirit. The believer is a far greater witness than any written gospel. He is a living gospel.

Written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit means that the truth, the gospel, has become a part of us. We know the truth in love and we reveal it as a perfume reveals sweet aroma - it must.

He possesses a treasure in his earthen vessel and its glory shines through him.

It is important to understand that Paul is speaking of a letter of introduction and not a general letter.

A letter alone can be knowledge alone which reveals itself in arrogance, but a letter of introduction is knowledge with love.

2Co 3:4 And such confidence we have through Christ toward God.

2Co 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

2Co 3:6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Paul understood that he was incapable of such a ministry in himself.

Paul did not esteem himself sufficient for such work, but he knew beyond doubt that God had made him and the men with him adequate or sufficient.

Can a man work to exhaustion while knowing that the work doesn't depend upon him? Christians often feel the pressure of thinking that the work depends upon them and they have no joy and confidence in the work. We prepare, we apply truth to ourselves, we apply love, we speak the gospel, we serve and comfort and encourage, we correct but only with gentleness as we are so often corrected, we strive for more understanding of righteousness, but we do all knowing that it is God who supplies all things, the truth, the Spirit, the listeners, the spiritual gifts, the power … everything. This is not a paradox. Unlike human ventures we know that we have the victory in Christ, but this does not make us lazy, quite the opposite.

"Not of the letter" is in reference to the false teachers among them who were Jewish teachers who instructed that it was the letter of the law that was important. They taught the law like the Pharisees and never attempted to really translate OT doctrine into its richer meaning. If they had they would have seen that it pointed to Christ.

In opposition to the letter only is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in revealing to us the meaning of the truth.

The letter of the law kills because it only brings condemnation. They were teaching commands without redemption. They were instructing on the ways of the law without reconciliation through Christ.

"The letter kills" - In essence they were teaching that the law can be fulfilled without Christ. Such teaching only brings condemnation and death.