Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 40 – The essence of God – Justice. Jam 2:21; Gen 22.

Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 40 – The essence of God – Justice. Jam 2:21; Gen 22.

 

Jesus Christ did the work for salvation and His word does the work for deliverance in time from the enemies of God.

 

Our end is always faith. In faith we rest, as a daily Sabbath. So we see that justification by works is not hustling around the church or setting out a list of good deeds to do, or a certain number of people to witness to, but a continued faith in the power of the word of God.

 

Jam 2:20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith [arthrous – the faith or doctrine] without works is useless?

 

 “faith without works” simply means that the person has put his faith in the wrong object; a non-working object.

 

In verse 17 we had dead which is the Greek word nekros which refers to the dead body, while here we have argos, translated useless by the NASB, which refers to barrenness or inactivity and so it refers to what the dead can do, which is obviously nothing.

 

 “useless” – avrgo,j[argos] = what the dead can do, or what a dead womb, plant, soil, etc. can produce, barrenness, inactivity.

 

The inactivity results from placing your faith in something else besides the mind of Christ. Here faith is arthrous again, meaning “the faith” or the object of faith, which is Bible doctrine.

 

For example, let’s say a promise is given to me that a pearl of great value is under a particular rock. That inspires me to do some work, how much depends on the size of the rock, but what is really doing the work here? Is it not the promise that is motivating me and giving me energy and drive?

 

If there is no production after a time of accumulation of doctrine then your faith was misplaced. Maybe you were just playing church, you attend to find a mate, you listen but always subjectively – meaning that everything is about you, you want to fix your problems for you, there are a great number of selfish reasons that a person might listen to doctrine without actually putting his faith in it. You want a social life, you want approbation, you want to be smarter, but not for the purpose of glorifying God. Often, people’s lives get better when they listen and then when things are good they stop and then when things get bad again they listen, rinse and repeat. They don’t listen to the word of God for the glory of God, they have selfish motives.

 

James 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

 

James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

 

This passage is usually taken in reference to prayer, but seeking from doctrine is also a lot like asking God for wisdom. If you seek wisdom from selfish motives you will not receive it.

 

Now James, through the inspiration of God the HS uses the example of Abraham.

 

Jam 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

 

Hold on James:

Rom 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God… Rom 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

Abraham was justified by faith and the doctrine in his soul was justified or vindicated by this stupendous work – offering Isaac.

 

I know that many, if not all of you, know this event in history, but we should read it in light of our study. What righteousness demands, justice executes.

 

Abraham expressed more doctrine in three days than most people do in a lifetime. What will God ask you to do that will make His doctrine in your heart shine like the glory of heaven?

 

Abraham demonstrated the maturity, the tenacity, the dynamics and the stability of the faith-rest technique in three short days. All of his life he has been preparing for this moment. It all comes down to this, after 50 years of believer-ship, yet there is no option for failure in Abraham because his faith in fully placed in God’s word.

 

Gen 22:1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

 

Abraham failed many times in the past but he did not let his failures stop him, and that is the application of grace. Many believers would not allow themselves to get this far, to be even asked to do such a thing, because they let their failures keep them down, they don’t 1Jn 1:9 and press on in learning and believing and attempting to apply doctrine. They get frustrated, discouraged, they keep looking back at their failures, and they quit. They will never see this mountain top experience that Abraham and every mature believer will.

 

Like every believer Abraham had many props or crutches that he leaned on instead of God and over 50 years God has graciously knocked them all down.

 

First of all God separated Abraham from Chaldea, from a place called Ur, which was a separation from idolatry. But when he left he left with his father and God had told him to leave his father. So “after these things” means after separation from his father at Haran. This also means after separation from Haran, the dried up place. This means after separation from Egypt, as Abraham moved there (where he lied about his wife), and Abraham had to go back from Egypt to the land. This means after separation from the king of Sodom who offered him riches, from Lot who wouldn’t get with doctrine, from Ishmael, which was his scheme to replace God’s plan. And he had to separate from his doubts about God’s promise to give him a rightful heir. Through all this, all these things throughout 50 years, Abraham finally learned to faith-rest it – to lean on God alone. God promised him a son and he finally, after all that time, to believing the promise.

 

And, when he finally got around to believing God, it wasn’t because the baby was in his hands, in fact, when he finally got around to it he was in the most totally hopeless situation – sexually dead, his wife had passed the menopause, there was no way they could have children. At that point God intervened and they had Isaac. Faith doesn’t result from good circumstances. Faith results from coming to know the faithfulness and power of God. Example: Exodus generation – giants in the land.

 

Now he is ready to lean on God alone.

 

Gen 22:2 And He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

 

Notice that the instructions as to who is to be burned is very clear – “Isaac whom you love.” But the place to go is rather obscure and it will only become clear as he starts to move out. So part of this is very specific and part of it is obscure.

 

The point is that obedience to what is specifically known will clarify what is unknown or obscure.

 

I can’t sit around waiting until I understand every nook and cranny of a situation before I act. A lot of people do this and it’s just an excuse not to act. “I’m not going to move out until I understand and categorize everything.” This is simply a formula for inactivity or what James called “uselessness.” It’s the same as the person who is waiting for conditions to be perfect before they move out. You will always find something about the situation that isn’t perfect yet, and you will be inactive. What you now know, act upon it!

 

God guides us through the Word and as we are obedient to the Word, then other things become obvious and eventually we learn guidance not only through the direct statement of the Word but we learn guidance through the application of doctrine to experience.

 

Notice that God says, “take now your son,” act now, don’t sit around thinking up excuses as to why you cannot act, act on what you know and then let those experiences help reveal what you do not yet know.

 

The literal translation of Moriah = seen or manifestation of Jehovah.

 

Where was Jehovah to be manifest? On a hill in Moriah, which in 2Ch 3:1 was the location of Solomon’s temple, but there are several hills in Moriah, so it is either the temple mount or Cavalry that are the possibilities for this hill (hell). You can make up your own mind, but I’m putting my money on Cavalry.

 

Does Abraham know the significance of this hill – no. However, it is fun to think that he knows the king of the city that is in this area, a place called Salem whose king is Melchizedek. Yet since there is no mention of him, let us ponder the reality that Abraham doesn’t know the full extent of the significance of what he is about to do.

 

None of us know the full significance of what we do in service to God, but we will discover these impacts as they are recorded forever in the NJMH.

 

And this gets us back to our “stuck in the mud” point. It’s ok to ask yourself why God wants you to do a certain thing, but it’s best not to wait until you figure out why. You may never figure out why. Obedience doesn’t always need a why and maturity says that if God asks then that’s good enough because it will be righteous and just.

 

Abraham obeyed the Lord. He didn’t sit down and try to figure it out. He depended upon the Lord and he trusted the Lord. He knew that if the Lord said to do this that it was the only answer. He knew there was a reason for it and the Lord didn’t share the reason with him.

 

Note: Gen 21:12 But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

 

That is a promise. Now he has orders to cut his throat and burn his body. But that doesn’t bother Abraham because the Word of God is more real to Abraham than anything else in life. “In Isaac your descendents or your seed, including the promised seed to the world, TLJC, shall be named or called” is more real to him than the wonderful beloved son [the thing Abraham prizes the most] who walks beside him.

 

Hebrews explains it well:

Heb 11:17-19

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, "In Isaac your descendants shall be called." He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type.

 

Up to this time there is no account of resurrection of anyone, but Abraham knows the promise. The promise from God says that Isaac has to have a child; however, Isaac is only an unwed teenager. Even when God promised him in Gen 12 and 15 concerning his inheritance, which he did not receive in his lifetime, Abraham must have contemplated his own resurrection so, whatever God can do, He can do the impossible.

 

Now he has to kill him, but that doesn’t bother him because he knows doctrine, he knows the One who spoke doctrine to him, and he knows the One who promises.

 

A mature believer must come to the place where the statement of God’s Word is more real than anything in life.

 

When it is he has inner resources that are fantastic beyond description and he is completely separated from slavery to circumstances for happiness and peace and blessing.

 

Gen 22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

 

Rising early shows his readiness. Everything is readied and a three day journey ensues. All the way Abraham is not stressed, bewildered, complaining, or sad; in fact he is happy because he knows God has asked him to do something that will glorify God.

 

Gen 22:4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

 

Gen 22:5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you."

 

Gen 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

 

The son bears the burden while the father has the implements for the sacrifice. The knife and the fire represent the judgment of God the Father for the sins of the world and the Son carries the cross up the hill. The typology is easy, but as are most things that are so easily seen in typology it is of the most beautiful and significant of all types of Christ. The two walked on together shows that Jesus Christ and God the Father were still in fellowship as Christ climbed Cavalry with the cross. Their wonderful fellowship is based upon doctrine in the soul. Christ has a maximum amount of doctrine and makes for fellowship so sweet that Christ is able not to sin against His antagonists. However, in a few hours that fellowship would be severed. One can imagine Christ savoring every moment of fellowship with His Father, despite the physical agony, in anticipation of losing it. That’s the relationship that doctrine can give the believer to the Father.

 

Gen 22:7 And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

 

Gen 22:8 And Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

 

Literally Abraham said, “God sees for Himself the lamb.”

 

Believer, God sees it, God will provide for it, your curiosity about the what’s, how’s, and why’s of what only God can see must only be satisfied by faith in His person.

 

Isaac is curious, but he trusts his father, for the father’s answer satisfies the curiosity of the son.

 

Matt 26:39 “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt… 42 My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done”… 44 and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

 

He doesn’t ask again, but rather marches to the cross. There is no other way My Son, but as I have told you, I will glorify your name forever for through you all men may come to salvation.

 

John 12:27-28 [three days prior]

"Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. "Father, glorify Thy name." There came therefore a voice out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

 

If Christ runs from the cross then everything He spoke during His ministry is not justified. The cross is His ultimate justification by works. Everything He believed and preached is vindicated by this act. In the same way, but in to a much lesser extent Abraham has his opportunity to vindicate his doctrine as will every mature believer.

 

Gen 22:9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there, and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

 

Here we have a very wonderful illustration of submission to the will of God. After everything is in order the father has to tell the son he is the offering. Who carried the wood? The strongest of the two physically carried the wood—Isaac. Isaac has volition, and all he has to do is physically resist. Or he could say, yes I will get on that altar. Abraham, over 100 years old, does not have the physical strength to make his son get on that altar and be bound to it. The son had to agree to go along with it. That is a picture of what Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, did for us. Many hundreds of years later this same thing would happen. Jesus would say, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

 

Jesus Christ in the realm of His humanity and His human volition agreed to go to the cross and be bound to the altar, just as Isaac as the picture and the type of this did so many years before.

 

John 10:17-18

For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.

 

Gen 22:10 And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

 

Gen 22:11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

 

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Good painter, but Rembrant didn’t know this doctrine as most don’t, and that is that the angel of the Lord is not an angel, but a theophany of the Lord Jesus Christ. A theophany is a manifestation of the preincarnate Christ.

 

The doubling of his name means that God is honoring him. The doubling of a Hebrew noun means perfect or complete concerning the character of the noun.

 

Isa 26:3

The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect[shalom] peace [shalom], Because he trusts in Thee.

 

God is acknowledging and honoring Abraham’s maturity.

 

Gen 22:12 And he said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."