Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 42 – The essence of God – Justice. Jam 2:21-24; .

Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 42 – The essence of God – Justice. Jam 2:21-24; .

 

Opening prayer and announcements:

 

 

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

 

Jam 2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected [matured];

 

“(the) faith was perfected” = doctrine reached its goal and it needed many pressures to do so – produced fruit.

 

Pressure, conflict, and resistance are needed for doctrine to reach its goal. (ex: working out on the space station) This fully explains why God allows sin and evil to continue in His world. It is proving His doctrine.

 

Sin and evil and all opposition to God in this world are all proving His doctrine.

 

[James is asking] Do you not see this? Do you not comprehend that Abraham depicted the greatest type of Christ for the world to see and so even he, though our father in faith, is subject also to him, and that it was faith that was at work with his works that vindicated what he believed?

 

Jam 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him [credited to him] as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God.

 

“friend” – fi,loj[philos] = loved one, dear one, or friend.

 

Abraham was made righteous at the point of faith and James acknowledges that, but he goes further to state that:

 

Abraham’s imputed righteousness became evident to the theater of the AC by putting his faith in doctrine after salvation.

 

Isa 41:8

"But you, Israel, My servant,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

Descendant of Abraham My friend,

 

2Ch 20:7

Didst Thou not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Thy people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham Thy friend forever?

 

Jam 2:24 You see that a man is justified [experiential justification as an expert witness in the AC] by works, and not by faith alone.

 

“Keep on seeing that out from the source of works a man receives vindication and not from the source of faith alone.” Faith alone cannot produce anything. It must have an object in Christ.

 

Example number two is Rahab.

 

Jos 2:1 Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.

 

 

Jos 2:2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land."

 

Some visitors to Rahab’s establishment saw them and reported them to the king. They all know about the 2 million plus people just a few miles to the east who have recently destroyed some very strong armies. Why would the spies go there?

 

Jos 2:3 And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land."

 

Jos 2:4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

 

Jos 2:5 And it came about when it was time to shut the gate, at dark, that the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them."

 

Jos 2:6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof [set out to dry on the roof – she manufactured linen].

 

Jos 2:7 So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan to the fjords; and as soon as those who were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate.

 

Jos 2:8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof,

 

Jos 2:9 and said to the men, "I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.

 

Jos 2:10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

 

Jos 2:11 And when we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

 

Heb 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 

Rahab is not an eye witness to anything that she says with conviction is the working of Jehovah Elohim, yet she believes it as if she had seen it.

 

Jos 2:12 Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household, and give me a pledge of truth,

 

Jos 2:13 and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters [blessing by association], with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death."

 

Jos 2:14 So the men said to her, "Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the Lord gives us the land [confidence] that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you."

 

Jos 2:15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall.

 

Jos 2:16 And she said to them, "Go to the hill country, lest the pursuers happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days, until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way."

 

Jos 2:17 And the men said to her, "We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear,

 

Jos 2:18 unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household.

 

Jos 2:19 And it shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if a hand is laid on him.

 

Jos 2:20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear."

 

Jos 2:21 And she said, "According to your words, so be it." So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

 

Jos 2:22 And they departed and came to the hill country, and remained there for three days until the pursuers returned. Now the pursuers had sought them all along the road, but had not found them.

 

Jos 2:23 Then the two men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they related to him all that had happened to them.

 

Jos 2:24 And they said to Joshua, "Surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and all the inhabitants of the land, moreover, have melted away before us."

 

Heb 11:31

By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

 

Jos 6:22 And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the harlot's house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her."

 

Jos 6:23 So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives, and placed them outside the camp of Israel.

 

Jos 6:24 And they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.

 

Jos 6:25 However, Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

 

She is obviously not a harlot when sojourning with Israel, yet she is titled Rahab the harlot.

 

Titles often reflect what God has delivered us from. The believer’s background has been swept clean by the blood of Christ.

 

Matt 26:6-7

 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it upon His head as He reclined at the table.

 

It doesn’t matter what you were. What matters is what you are reaching for.

 

Phi 3:14

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

And so Rahab, a beautiful women by historical accounts, it would seem, marries one of those spies that ended up in her house and she actually becomes an ancestress of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Mat 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

 

Mat 1:2 To Abraham was born Isaac; and to Isaac, Jacob; and to Jacob, Judah and his brothers;

 

Mat 1:3 and to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and to Perez was born Hezron; and to Hezron, Ram;

 

Mat 1:4 and to Ram was born Amminadab; and to Amminadab, Nahshon; and to Nahshon, Salmon;

 

Mat 1:5 and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed, Jesse;

 

Mat 1:6 and to Jesse was born David the king.

 

If you’re hoping for your right man or woman, relax, you never know how God is going to set up the meeting.

 

Jam 2:25 And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

 

Jam 2:26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

 

The work of Abraham and the work of Rahab are not the same, yet both depend on faith. To state the obvious, gender doesn’t matter, the work itself is inconsequential, but the object of faith must be the working object – doctrine.

 

Abraham trusted that God could raise his son from the dead and Rahab trusted that Israel would definitely take the land and that she and her family could be spared by the mercy of God.

 

Faith alone is nothing – dead. Faith with the working object of doctrine is the most powerful thing in the world and it will deliver the believer from all things in this world.

 

A few last things on Justice.

 

Do not seek justice in your own life, rather leave your case in the Supreme Court of Heaven, Heb 10:30-31.

 

Heb 10:30 For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge His people."

 

Heb 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

It’s not so terrifying to be in a person’s hands, so don’t attempt your own vengeance.

 

This verse reveals that we do not have to seek justice in our lives. If someone has hurt us, seeking revenge will only hurt you more, in fact triple. You will suffer for the sin of vengeance, for rejecting the Lord, and for the sin that was against you. God will fight for you while you keep silent.

 

Seeking for perfect justice in mankind is usually a waste of time and effort. Appeal rather to the supreme court of heaven, Job 4:17.

 

Job 4:17

'Can mankind be just before God?

Can a man be pure before his Maker?

 

The justice of God also administers many judgments.

 

There are future judgments to come, such as:

1) The judgment of the baptism of fire at the end of the Tribulation.

 

2) The judgment of fallen angels.

 

3) The Great White Throne Judgment of all unbelievers.

 

4) Divine justice also daily administers punitive discipline to carnal believers in time; i.e., warning discipline, intensive discipline, and dying discipline.

 

So divine justice is the source of both blessing and cursing.

 

 

Satan uses his demon intelligence system to accumulate a sin file on every believer. Periodically, when your sin file is big enough, Satan accuses you before the supreme court of heaven, Zec 3.

 

Zec 3:1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

 

Zec 3:2 And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?"

 

Zec 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel.

 

Zec 3:4 And he spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying, "Remove the filthy garments from him." Again he said to him, "See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes."

 

Zec 3:5 Then I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by.

 

Zec 3:6 And the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua saying,

 

Zec 3:7 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'If you will walk in My ways, and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here.

 

Zec 3:8 'Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you —  indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch.

 

Zec 3:9 'For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,' declares the Lord of hosts,' and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

 

Rev 5:6

And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

 

Zec 3:10 'In that day,' declares the Lord of hosts,' every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.'"


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