Angelic Conflict part 148: Human history (Sabbath) – Luk 12; Jer 17:5-8; 2Ti 2:11-13; Act 2:4; 3:17-19; Eph 3:14-21; Job 1:9-11.Title: Angelic Conflict part 148: Human history (Sabbath) – Luk 12; Jer 17:5-8; 2Ti 2:11-13; Act 2:4; 3:17-19; Eph 3:14-21; Job 1:9-11.
In Luke 12, Luke recorded five warnings from our Lord. Four of these warnings must be heeded by Gods people today if we are to be faithful disciples; and the fifth warning should be heeded by a lost world.
Luk 12:1 Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy is a word that means play acting, or pretending to be something that you are not.
Luk 12:2 "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.
Luk 12:3 "Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
Hypocrisy is foolish and futile for eventually everyone and everything gets found out. God speeds up this uncovering by allowing pressure in the believer’s life.
Luk 12:4 "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
Luk 12:5 "But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
Reverent fear of God removes the fear of man which can only lead to hypocrisy, pretending, acting.
Reverent fear causes caution, respect, alertness, and motivation to apply doctrine to life and life’s circumstances, and it removes fear of men and circumstances.
Luk 12:6 "Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? And yet not one of them is forgotten before God.
Luk 12:7 "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear [those who kill the body]; you are of more value than many sparrows.
If God intimately knows the sparrow at 25 of a cent each and He intimately knows us then we have nothing to fear from men or any earthly thing. Reverent fear of Him, which verges on a deep and reverent respect of His person and plan is of great profit. It causes caution, alert thinking, and motivation to apply His doctrines to life. Those who do not have this will reap what they sow and all pressure will reveal their inherent and learned weakness from a lack of pure virtue that was graciously given by God.
Luk 12:8 "And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man shall confess him also before the angels of God;
Luk 12:9 but he who denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God [denied the rewards of reigning with Him].
If we have the confidence, which results from entering His rest, to confess Him before men and then we know that He will confess us before the Father and His angels, then why would we care what men think of us or can do to us?
Lack of concern over the opinion of others is a major step in entering God's rest. The confession of your name before the Father and the angels is told to you so that you will not put your trust in man.
Jer 17:5-6 "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord. "For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant.
God's rest is left behind. It remains for all believers and yet so many fail to see it because they will not invest time in the word of God.
Jer 17:7-8 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord. "For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.
Matthew’s account: Mat 10:32 "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
Mat 10:33 "But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
Heb 3:6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence [all outspokenness; unreservedness in speech; fearless confidence] and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
2Ti 2:11-13 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us [rewards]; If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself [position].
Why not rest in being an invisible hero and not desire to be visible, when we know that Christ Himself will confess us before the Father and His angels, and if so, put no value in the opinions of man and don’t strive to be seen by men or to receive glory from men.
The Lord now offers a plea to Israel.
Luk 12:10 "And everyone who will speak a word against the Son of Man [crucify Him], it shall be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him.
"Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" - rejection of the gospel that is brought to every person under the common grace ministry of the HS.
Jesus appears to be contradicting Himself and that is why the Scripture requires more than a superficial glance. In Luk 12:8-9, He demands that we openly confess Him, but in Luk 12:10, He says we can speak against Him and be forgiven. However, if we speak against the Spirit, there is no forgiveness! Does this mean that the Holy Spirit is more important than the Son of God?
Note that this statement is connected with the ministry of the Spirit in and through the Apostles (Luk 12:11-12).
Luk 12:11 "And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not become anxious about how or what you should speak in your defense, or what you should say;
Luk 12:12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
This is especially poignant to Peter who will address the crowds at Pentecost and in the temple soon after. What happened to Peter who went from denying he even knew the Lord at the high priest's palace the night before Christ's death to confessing Christ before thousands of people?
Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
The Jewish nation rejected God the Father when they refused to obey John the Baptist and repent for John was sent by the Father [Joh 1:6]. They rejected God the Son when they asked Pilate to crucify Him ["We have no other god but Caesar]. But that sin could be forgiven as Christ died for all sin, except the sin of rejecting Him. Still to come after the crucifixion was still the ministry of the Spirit.
God did not judge the nation immediately, but through the prayer of Jesus as He hung on the Cross, they were spared another 40 years; Luk 23:34; Act 3:17.
Luk 23:33-34 And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
Act 3:17-19 "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled. "Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
Why does Peter teach this with such confidence, as he did a few days before at Pentecost? He was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Then God sent the Holy Spirit who ministered through the Apostles and other believers in the church. This was the last opportunity for the nation, and they failed by rejecting the witness of the Spirit (Act 7:51).
Act 7:51 [Stephen] "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
Luk 12:11-12 was fulfilled during the first chapters of Acts when the message went "to the Jew first" (Act 3:26; 13:46; Rom 1:16).
Israel's third "national sin" was the stoning of Stephen (Act 7), after which the message went out to the Samaritans (Act 8), and then the Gentiles (Act 10).
Note that Stephen said, "You always resist the Holy Spirit" but he didn't say they were resisting him.
The sin against the Holy Spirit today would be the same since it is the Spirit that witnesses of Christ through the gospel. Rejection of the gospel is rejection of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the unbeliever through the believer that delivers the gospel message accurately.
And now comes the astute listener who has entered God's rest... (sarcasm)
Luk 12:13 And someone in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me."
Now, rabbis were expected to help settle legal matters. But for this to be on the mind of this man after what he's just heard reveals his hard heartedness and that his priority is money and greed and earthly matters.
“Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts” is mentioned three times in this passage; Heb 3:8, 15; 4:7.
Luk 12:14 But He said to him, "Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbiter over you?"
Did the Son of God come all the way down to earth, become a man, and begin this ministry at 30 years old so that He could decide the allotment of the inheritance between these two brothers?
"You" is plural, which likely refers to both brothers who are engulfed with greed over a family inheritance. The one who asks might have a legal right to a portion or half and the other brother refuses to settle things legally, never mind graciously.
People want Christ to serve them what they want and do not want Him to deliver them from those wants.
In other words, what would you prefer, to either get your half of the inheritance or for Christ to remove all greed from your heart? They are completely different solutions. One is a temporary solution and one is an eternal one. Do you trust that the surgical removal of all greed by means of doctrine and the Spirit will be a step towards entering His rest and that His rest is the most profitable comfort for both your soul and your body and are you willing to put in the time to hear the doctrine and mix it with faith so that this rest becomes a permanent fixture in the house that is your soul, or would you rather take the money now?! Do you want the cash or what's behind door number one?
The Exodus wanted everything to go easy and right, in their own definition of what was right, but they did not chose to allow God to deliver them from the slavery in their own souls.
Job 1:9-11 "Does Job fear God for nothing? "Hast Thou not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. "But put forth Thy hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse Thee to Thy face."
Eph 3:14 For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,
Eph 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
Eph 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;
Eph 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
"dwell" - katoike,w[katoikeo] = to settle down in a dwelling, to dwell fixedly in a place, to be at home.
Just as any of us would be uncomfortable is a stressful home so Christ is not going to be at home in a heart that is full of stress, anxiety, and worry.
Eph 3:18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth [space and time],
Eph 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.
Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think [life beyond dreams], according to the power that works within us,
Eph 3:21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Luk 12:13 And someone in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me."
Luk 12:14 But He said to him, "Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbiter over you?"
Luk 12:15 And He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."
Covetousness is an unquenchable thirst for getting more and more of something we think we need in order to be truly satisfied. It may be a thirst for money or the things that money can buy, or even a thirst for position and power. Jesus made it clear that true life does not depend on an abundance of possessions. He did not deny that we have certain basic needs (Mat 6:32; 1Ti 6:17). He only affirmed that we will not make life richer by acquiring more of these things.
We will not make life richer by acquiring more of what we need.
Mark Twain once defined "civilization" as "a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities," and he was right. In fact, many Christians are infected with covetousness and do not know it. They think that Paul's admonition in 1Ti 6 applies only to the "rich and famous."
1Ti 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
Are you enjoying logistical grace or are you waiting for more?
Measured by the living standards of the rest of the world, most believers in America are indeed wealthy people. And so now He gives a parable to teach this principle.
Luk 12:16 And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a certain rich man was very productive.
Luk 12:17 "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?'
His problem is too much money. Do you wish you had this problem? If you do, it may reveal a covetous heart.
Written by Agur:
Pro 30:7-9 Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee and say, "Who is the Lord?" Or lest I be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God. |