Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 41 - Predestination

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 41 - Predestination - Liberty of God's glory.

Announcements / opening prayer:

Liberty is the fruit of the Spirit; love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

For the Christian, this is liberty. It doesn't depend upon what nation he lives in or what time in history. It doesn't depend on whether he is prospering or unjustly suffering at the hands of evil men. It doesn't depend upon his physical, financial, or social condition. It depends upon the Spirit alone.

Take goodness for instance - agathosune: The word refers to that quality in a man who is ruled by and aims at what is good, namely, the quality of moral worth as defined by God.

Gal 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Gal 5:14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Gal 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another.

Our freedom in Christ, like our kingdom, is invisible now, but will become a visible reality in the future. These far surpass the present suffering of loss.

Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Rom 8:19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

Rom 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope [surety]

Rom 8:21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

If baffles me that slave man thinks he can set the enslaved creation free.

Rom 8:23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

This shows us that our present sufferings don't have to met with a smiling face as if nothing were painful or hurtful. We have capacity to suffer in hope, not despairing, but content, though we groan within ourselves - within - without complaining.

Rom 8:24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees?

Rom 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Our freedom will become visible in heaven, yet it exists in every saved soul in time. It may look like we're slaves but that is only the outward appearance of the liberty of service.

1Co 9:19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.

Let's look at the context of this verse and we will see Christian liberty. It is truly where the Spirit is.

1Co 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

1Co 9:2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

1Co 9:3 My defense to those who examine me is this:

1Co 9:4 Do we not have a right [exousia: authority or power] to eat and drink?

"right to eat and drink" - a right to support. By not demanding this right some concluded it was an admission of non-apostleship. Paul endured this insult so that the gospel would not be hindered.

1Co 9:5 Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

1Co 9:6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?

1Co 9:7 Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?

Paul compares the church to an army, a vineyard, and a flock and in each case the worker is worthy of his wages. Paul and Barnabas have this right but they do not exercise it so that the gospel will not be hindered.

1Co 9:8 I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things?

1Co 9:9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing." God is not concerned about oxen, is He?

Did God write this so that the ox could demand his rights be fulfilled? Oxen can't read. It is written for our sake.

1Co 9:10 Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

1Co 9:11 If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?

1Co 9:12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? [We ministered to your conversion and established your church] Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.