By brother R. Michel Lankford
A few years ago I felt God leading me to write a teaching series called "Wrath of God, Grace of God." What I originally thought was going to be a very simple teaching ended up being a five-part series. The whole premise of this teaching series was this. We cannot genuinely understand or appreciate God's awesome grace, until we first understand and truly appreciate God's righteous standards and the guaranteed punishment and penalties for violating God's righteous standards. Until we understand what God really requires, what standards God will use to judge every single human being, until we understand that we are truly guilty of violating the standards, and until we understand what the absolute guaranteed penalties are for violating the standards, then we do not truly understand our desperate need for Grace. What's more, if we do not authentically understand our DESPERATE NEED for Grace, then we certainly will not appreciate the high price that Jesus Christ paid to ransom us out of our destruction and into the Grace of God. We can't appreciate the cure that God offers, if we don't first believe and understand that we have the disease, and we won't take the treatment protocol that the Great Physician requires to cure our disease, if we don't truly understand and believe that staying in our disease is absolutely fatal. This beloved is the crux of the problem with modern day "Grace teaching and preaching." For more than a generation now, the modern-day evangelical approach has been to teach about the grace of God and ignore God's wrath almost completely. What you end up with is that you are offering to give a very high-priced cure free of charge, but you are offering it to people who don't believe they are sick, and who don't take the consequences of their sickness seriously, so they won't appreciate and remain with their cure.
Yesterday, a friend of mine gave me an audio sermon called, "Hell's Best Kept Secret." The evangelist who preached it is named Ray Comfort. He preached and confirmed to my heart every premise I have written in, "Wrath of God, Grace of God."So the Holy Spirit then has clearly been leading us both in the exact same direction. In his sermon, Brother Ray Comfort reveals information that I did not even have when I wrote my papers. He says that in the course of his travels, he has gained access to church growth and development records, and he has seen trends which clearly demonstrate that 80% to 90% of people who make professions of faith in Jesus Christ today will not remain in their faith for Christ. Think about this. Churches are actually reporting and documenting an 80% to 90% failure rate at making and keeping disciples!! Something clearly is Not working, and we need to face up to it and do something about it, if we truly care about the immortal being of people. Imagine, according to present tends, only 10 to 20% of people continue walking with God after they make professions of faith. If you love people and you care about their immortal being, that is an extremely scary reality. Normally, I don't post anything in this blog except for discipleship teachings and Bible studies. I don't usually promote other books and other teachings, but in this case I am making an exception. I highly recommend you listen to this teaching. Also, if you would like a copy of the teaching series that I wrote called, "Wrath of God, Grace of God," (parts 1-5), simply e-mail me and I will make that available to you as well. God bless.
Brother Michel Lankford
Ray Comfort Teaching: Hell's Best Kept Secret
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=434&commentView=itemComments
I truly believe that every pastor, every teacher and indeed, every believer who has any concern for the destination of people's immortal being, should hear this sermon.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
All Who Are Weary, Come
Christ's 29th Command
By Brother R. Michel Lankford
A dear and precious brother and friend, brought this YouTube video to my attention, and it illustrates very well how Scripture can be misused to create perverted theology if we allow it. It makes a very important point. I request your attention:
'It doesn't matter who you are, what you believe or how you're living, just come to Jesus, and He will give you rest.' Really? Is that what Scripture correctly says?
OR,
'I know how some of you are out There. Your sick and tired of your family. You're sick and tired of your job, your wife, your kids and your in-laws. Some of you are so angry and uptight you practically come home and bite the dog. Just come to Jesus and He will give you rest.
Those are just two examples, but whenever this passage is misrepresented, it is usually misrepresented in much the same way. Normally the minister will highlight a scenario where a person is weary, exhausted, frustrated and angry about their situation in life, and then using or rather misusing Matthew 11:28 as their justification, they will very often issue a blanket invitation that no matter how a person is living, all they need to do is just come to Jesus and He will fix everything. So what happens when this person goes to the front of the church, makes a commitment to Jesus Christ, they experience the joy and forgiveness for a short while, but their life is still very hard. Their bad habits still dominate them. Their relationships are not improving very quickly. Their boss is still a pain. What happens to a person's faith at that point? Well, speaking in the most general terms, what usually happens is that the person becomes heartsick because their hope and expectation was deferred. They were taught to believe and expect for a particular result because of what the preacher said, that result didn't happen (because that is not really what God actually promised in the first place), but now there are seeds of doubt and unbelief planted in a new believer's heart which make it harder for them to believe and obey God the next time.
Beloved, that is the biggest problem with incorrect preaching. It creates beliefs and expectations which God did not actually promise, and when God does not fulfill those incorrect expectations, hope is deferred, and people's faith suffers damage. That's not good.
In Matthew 10:1-15, Messiah is giving ministry instructions to His small group of 12 followers. First, by the Holy Spirit, Matthew describes exactly who these followers were (Matthew 10:1-5). Messiah then goes on to give instructions concerning how this small group is to carry out ministry. Please remember that these specific instructions were given prior to Messiah's death and resurrection (Matthew 10:6-15). In most cases, the instructions of God have A universal meaning, but in this case the instructions that were given were time sensitive. We know this because prior to Messiah becoming the atoning Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Messiah's followers were told not to go into the places of the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5-6), but after His earthly ministry was completed, after He was resurrected, and just prior to His ascension, Messiah then enlarged their ministry to include the entire world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; cf. Ephesians 2).
Even though the instructions of Matthew 10:6-15 do not precisely apply to us anymore since Matthew 28:18-20 is now in effect, there are still some principles that we can and should learn from Messiah's instructions (Romans 15:4), in this case, concerning the first harvest:
1. Genuine revival will always begin among God's people first. In our postmodern mass-market culture we are taught to think of success in terms of how many new people, how many new customers are we getting. However, in God's economy, revival is all about getting God's house in order before reaching to the rest of the world. That's why in any genuine and authentic revival you will first see the heart of believers returning to God and obeying His precepts before you ever see a mass arrival of new converts (Matthew 10:5-6)
2. In a genuine revival the message will be constant: "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." Why does God ask His ministers to stick to that message? Quite frankly, because that's the one we always need, and the one we are most likely to forget. God's kingdom is a theocracy. Yahweh is in charge, not us. It's His kingdom, not ours. Remember that to repent literally means to change one's mind, to change one's purpose or intent, to change one's desires, and to change one's way of life away from sin and toward what is pleasing to God. As believers, we stand in constant need of repentance throughout our lives, so that message is never obsolete (Matthew 10:7).
3. In a genuine revival and move of God, there will be signs and wonders. At the same time, it's critical to note that the signs and wonders will always coincide with, and will always address the real and concrete needs of the people. God does indeed do miracles, but almost without exception, His miracles will always point back to God, and they will always meet the concrete real needs of people. The legitimate gifts of the Spirit never point back to the Minister. They always focus on who God is, who Jesus is, and meeting the needs of the one who is receiving ministry (Matthew 10:8 cf. 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14).
4. In a genuine move of God, the ministers will operate on faith. That is to say, you don't take out a loan to raise an influx of cash so that you can do what God called you to do. Why do I make such a point of this? God does not entirely bless such a backward practice, because it violates Scripture. It's also an oxymoron. Think about it. The Bible is very clear that the one who borrows becomes a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). So how can you affectively preach freedom, deliverance and salvation in Jesus Christ, but you are going to go into the slavery of debt in order to do ministry? No, you gather your support as you go, you build as you can afford to within your means, and you trust God to meet the needs as you go, but you don't put yourself in other people in bondage so you can preach freedom (Matthew 10:9-10).
5. In a genuine move of God, faithful ministers will not be jumping from pillar to post. It will stay where God sends them, and where the people are receptive. Faithful ministers are not constantly looking for where the grass is greener and opportunities seem greater. At the same time, if the people are not receptive, faithful ministers are not required to endlessly plead and try to force people into a blessing. There does come a time when faithful ministers must move on if the people are not receptive to the message after due diligence and effort has been employed (Matthew 10:11-13).
6. Remember that ministers are called to be obedient to the Lord. The results are strictly between God and the individual, after the Minister has been faithful and obedient.
Our jobs as ministers is to be as faithful and obedient to the Lord as we can, and we should always be striving to improve. At the same time, we must remember that no matter how effectual we seek to be in ministry and service to the Lord, not everyone will accept the truth. The results after this are in God's hands, not ours.
In Matthew 10:16-39, Messiah detailed some of the difficulties that genuine God followers would face. The apostles reminded us of the same principles in their writings (2 Timothy 3:12). We have been warned to expect it and not be surprised by it (1 Peter 4:12).
In Matthew 10:40-42, Messiah reminded his first followers of the rewards for faithful and obedient service.
In Matthew 11:1-6, we see all these principles exemplified through John the baptizer, who has just been arrested.
In Matthew 11:7-19, Messiah affirms John the baptizer's ministry, and He declares that if the people had been willing to believe it and receive it, John was in fact the one operating in the spirit and power of Elijah who was to come and prepare the way for Messiah.
In Matthew 11:20-24 Messiah then pronounces woeful judgments, specifically on the cities that had heard his preaching, who had seen God miraculously working through Yeshua the Messiah, and then rejected Him.
In Matthew 11:25-27 Messiah then goes on to a prayer of thanksgiving to Yahweh. He first gives thanks to Almighty God His Father that the true concepts of the kingdom, about who John the Baptizer was, and about who He is; these things are not revealed to the wise, to the overly educated academics, or to the veterans in ministry. No, instead these things are revealed to infants. They are revealed to those who are like infants, who understand their absolute dependence upon God.
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” ” (Matthew 11:28–30, NASB95)
Yes, Almighty God and Messiah does desire for every individual to come to Him. Yes, the Almighty desires for every person to come to Him, and that no one would perish. There are other verses that speak to this throughout the Testament. At the same time, this particular verse cannot correctly be applied that way. Entering into the Lord's rest is not a free-for-all, as some would suggest. Both the first and second writings of the Whole Testament, apply the same restrictions concerning entering the Lord's rest or Sabbath.
1. Entering into God's rest requires that we be in covenant and in right relationship with Almighty God and the Messiah. This requires that we believe Him and continually come to Him.
2. Just because we are intended to make it and enter into God's rest, this does not magically guarantee that we will get to experience it. I give you this example. Didn't every single person who came out of Egypt with Moses, did they not all start out obeying God? Think about it. Everyone who came out with Moses had put the blood of the Passover lamb on their door posts so that the death angel would Passover and not kill their firstborn. According to the Scriptures, every one of those people had passed through the Red Sea on dry land and had seen the Lord's salvation. Everyone of those people were intended to live in a land full of promise and rest, but did they all enter the rest that God intended them to have? No they did not. In fact, among that first generation, only Joshua and Caleb actually lived to enter the Lord's rest, because they obeyed God, while the rest of their generation rebelled against God.
3. In both the first and second writings of the Whole Testament we are told the same thing. Entering into the Lord's rest requires that we believe God. It requires that we come to God. It requires that we start out obeying God. Entering into the Lord's ultimate Sabbath rest requires that we follow through and persevere in obeying God until we are all the way home and reach our ultimate destination.
Before you say, "Hey brother, that's Old Testament. We are under New Testament now. We are under Grace. Please, let me stop you there before you use such flawed theology to delude and comfort yourself right into hell. Yes, the example I used regarding Joshua Caleb and the children of Israel are in the first writing of the Testament, that's true. However, the exact same principle is restated again in the Second Writing of the Testament, or the New Testament (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:1-33; Hebrews 4:1-16. Again and again we are warned throughout the Second Writings (AKA the New Testament) that we should diligently learn from the so-called Old Testament. We should hold on to the good examples (i.e. Hebrews chapters 11-12), all the while making sure that we not to repeat Israel's mistakes and failures. Please do not be deceived. Thank you for joining me. See you next time.
Brother Michel Lankford
By Brother R. Michel Lankford
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30, NASB95)
A dear and precious brother and friend, brought this YouTube video to my attention, and it illustrates very well how Scripture can be misused to create perverted theology if we allow it. It makes a very important point. I request your attention:
This is the perfect example of HOW NOT TO USE YOUR Bible. Brought to you courtesy of YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Q32xIyoeo&feature=channel_video_title
How to Apply the Bible INCORRECTLY
One of the easiest ways to incorrectly apply Scripture is
to take bits and pieces that you like and put them together. If one completely abandons and ignores the context in which Scripture is actually placed, then honestly one can adapt Scripture to say anything they want. This is a practice that I wholeheartedly DO NOT RECOMMEND, such a practice is destructive to both preacher and their listeners, but people still do it. Today's focal passage is one that often gets abused in this way. People especially love Matthew 11:28: "Come to me all who labor in our heavy laden and I will give you rest." Look at some of the FALSE statements that have been made using this verse as justification. I'm not going to name names, but how many of you have actually heard statements like these preached in your lifetime? See if any of these sound familiar when considering Matthew 11:28 without its context:'It doesn't matter who you are, what you believe or how you're living, just come to Jesus, and He will give you rest.' Really? Is that what Scripture correctly says?
OR,
'I know how some of you are out There. Your sick and tired of your family. You're sick and tired of your job, your wife, your kids and your in-laws. Some of you are so angry and uptight you practically come home and bite the dog. Just come to Jesus and He will give you rest.
Those are just two examples, but whenever this passage is misrepresented, it is usually misrepresented in much the same way. Normally the minister will highlight a scenario where a person is weary, exhausted, frustrated and angry about their situation in life, and then using or rather misusing Matthew 11:28 as their justification, they will very often issue a blanket invitation that no matter how a person is living, all they need to do is just come to Jesus and He will fix everything. So what happens when this person goes to the front of the church, makes a commitment to Jesus Christ, they experience the joy and forgiveness for a short while, but their life is still very hard. Their bad habits still dominate them. Their relationships are not improving very quickly. Their boss is still a pain. What happens to a person's faith at that point? Well, speaking in the most general terms, what usually happens is that the person becomes heartsick because their hope and expectation was deferred. They were taught to believe and expect for a particular result because of what the preacher said, that result didn't happen (because that is not really what God actually promised in the first place), but now there are seeds of doubt and unbelief planted in a new believer's heart which make it harder for them to believe and obey God the next time.
Beloved, that is the biggest problem with incorrect preaching. It creates beliefs and expectations which God did not actually promise, and when God does not fulfill those incorrect expectations, hope is deferred, and people's faith suffers damage. That's not good.
Remembering the Context
In as much as this is one of the most important promises in all of Scripture, It's easy to take some of these powerful Scriptures which we like and indeed need so much, and to use them as though they were stand-alone versus. The problem is that when we do this we can very often take things out of context and sometimes we can even neglect the meaning of what was actually said. So, let's refresh our memory as to what led up to this command:In Matthew 10:1-15, Messiah is giving ministry instructions to His small group of 12 followers. First, by the Holy Spirit, Matthew describes exactly who these followers were (Matthew 10:1-5). Messiah then goes on to give instructions concerning how this small group is to carry out ministry. Please remember that these specific instructions were given prior to Messiah's death and resurrection (Matthew 10:6-15). In most cases, the instructions of God have A universal meaning, but in this case the instructions that were given were time sensitive. We know this because prior to Messiah becoming the atoning Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Messiah's followers were told not to go into the places of the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5-6), but after His earthly ministry was completed, after He was resurrected, and just prior to His ascension, Messiah then enlarged their ministry to include the entire world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; cf. Ephesians 2).
Even though the instructions of Matthew 10:6-15 do not precisely apply to us anymore since Matthew 28:18-20 is now in effect, there are still some principles that we can and should learn from Messiah's instructions (Romans 15:4), in this case, concerning the first harvest:
1. Genuine revival will always begin among God's people first. In our postmodern mass-market culture we are taught to think of success in terms of how many new people, how many new customers are we getting. However, in God's economy, revival is all about getting God's house in order before reaching to the rest of the world. That's why in any genuine and authentic revival you will first see the heart of believers returning to God and obeying His precepts before you ever see a mass arrival of new converts (Matthew 10:5-6)
2. In a genuine revival the message will be constant: "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." Why does God ask His ministers to stick to that message? Quite frankly, because that's the one we always need, and the one we are most likely to forget. God's kingdom is a theocracy. Yahweh is in charge, not us. It's His kingdom, not ours. Remember that to repent literally means to change one's mind, to change one's purpose or intent, to change one's desires, and to change one's way of life away from sin and toward what is pleasing to God. As believers, we stand in constant need of repentance throughout our lives, so that message is never obsolete (Matthew 10:7).
3. In a genuine revival and move of God, there will be signs and wonders. At the same time, it's critical to note that the signs and wonders will always coincide with, and will always address the real and concrete needs of the people. God does indeed do miracles, but almost without exception, His miracles will always point back to God, and they will always meet the concrete real needs of people. The legitimate gifts of the Spirit never point back to the Minister. They always focus on who God is, who Jesus is, and meeting the needs of the one who is receiving ministry (Matthew 10:8 cf. 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14).
4. In a genuine move of God, the ministers will operate on faith. That is to say, you don't take out a loan to raise an influx of cash so that you can do what God called you to do. Why do I make such a point of this? God does not entirely bless such a backward practice, because it violates Scripture. It's also an oxymoron. Think about it. The Bible is very clear that the one who borrows becomes a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). So how can you affectively preach freedom, deliverance and salvation in Jesus Christ, but you are going to go into the slavery of debt in order to do ministry? No, you gather your support as you go, you build as you can afford to within your means, and you trust God to meet the needs as you go, but you don't put yourself in other people in bondage so you can preach freedom (Matthew 10:9-10).
5. In a genuine move of God, faithful ministers will not be jumping from pillar to post. It will stay where God sends them, and where the people are receptive. Faithful ministers are not constantly looking for where the grass is greener and opportunities seem greater. At the same time, if the people are not receptive, faithful ministers are not required to endlessly plead and try to force people into a blessing. There does come a time when faithful ministers must move on if the people are not receptive to the message after due diligence and effort has been employed (Matthew 10:11-13).
6. Remember that ministers are called to be obedient to the Lord. The results are strictly between God and the individual, after the Minister has been faithful and obedient.
Our jobs as ministers is to be as faithful and obedient to the Lord as we can, and we should always be striving to improve. At the same time, we must remember that no matter how effectual we seek to be in ministry and service to the Lord, not everyone will accept the truth. The results after this are in God's hands, not ours.
In Matthew 10:16-39, Messiah detailed some of the difficulties that genuine God followers would face. The apostles reminded us of the same principles in their writings (2 Timothy 3:12). We have been warned to expect it and not be surprised by it (1 Peter 4:12).
In Matthew 10:40-42, Messiah reminded his first followers of the rewards for faithful and obedient service.
In Matthew 11:1-6, we see all these principles exemplified through John the baptizer, who has just been arrested.
In Matthew 11:7-19, Messiah affirms John the baptizer's ministry, and He declares that if the people had been willing to believe it and receive it, John was in fact the one operating in the spirit and power of Elijah who was to come and prepare the way for Messiah.
In Matthew 11:20-24 Messiah then pronounces woeful judgments, specifically on the cities that had heard his preaching, who had seen God miraculously working through Yeshua the Messiah, and then rejected Him.
In Matthew 11:25-27 Messiah then goes on to a prayer of thanksgiving to Yahweh. He first gives thanks to Almighty God His Father that the true concepts of the kingdom, about who John the Baptizer was, and about who He is; these things are not revealed to the wise, to the overly educated academics, or to the veterans in ministry. No, instead these things are revealed to infants. They are revealed to those who are like infants, who understand their absolute dependence upon God.
Viewing This Command in Its True Context
It's critical to remember that it is within the context of everything Messiah just said in the last 69 verses that the command and promise we are now studying actually applies. Remember that in this combined command and promise, He is addressing believers who know and understand who John the Baptist really was, they understand that Jesus truly is the Messiah. They understand at least on a basic childlike rudimentary level how the kingdom of God is supposed to function, and that the religious and political establishment isn't functioning as God designed them to work. They are choosing to remain true to what God says regardless of what the traditional religious and political establishments say. The people Messiah is addressing in this command and promise are facing hardship and persecution because of their faithful stand for God and The Messiah. It was in this context that Jesus said these words:"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” ” (Matthew 11:28–30, NASB95)
Yes, Almighty God and Messiah does desire for every individual to come to Him. Yes, the Almighty desires for every person to come to Him, and that no one would perish. There are other verses that speak to this throughout the Testament. At the same time, this particular verse cannot correctly be applied that way. Entering into the Lord's rest is not a free-for-all, as some would suggest. Both the first and second writings of the Whole Testament, apply the same restrictions concerning entering the Lord's rest or Sabbath.
1. Entering into God's rest requires that we be in covenant and in right relationship with Almighty God and the Messiah. This requires that we believe Him and continually come to Him.
2. Just because we are intended to make it and enter into God's rest, this does not magically guarantee that we will get to experience it. I give you this example. Didn't every single person who came out of Egypt with Moses, did they not all start out obeying God? Think about it. Everyone who came out with Moses had put the blood of the Passover lamb on their door posts so that the death angel would Passover and not kill their firstborn. According to the Scriptures, every one of those people had passed through the Red Sea on dry land and had seen the Lord's salvation. Everyone of those people were intended to live in a land full of promise and rest, but did they all enter the rest that God intended them to have? No they did not. In fact, among that first generation, only Joshua and Caleb actually lived to enter the Lord's rest, because they obeyed God, while the rest of their generation rebelled against God.
3. In both the first and second writings of the Whole Testament we are told the same thing. Entering into the Lord's rest requires that we believe God. It requires that we come to God. It requires that we start out obeying God. Entering into the Lord's ultimate Sabbath rest requires that we follow through and persevere in obeying God until we are all the way home and reach our ultimate destination.
Before you say, "Hey brother, that's Old Testament. We are under New Testament now. We are under Grace. Please, let me stop you there before you use such flawed theology to delude and comfort yourself right into hell. Yes, the example I used regarding Joshua Caleb and the children of Israel are in the first writing of the Testament, that's true. However, the exact same principle is restated again in the Second Writing of the Testament, or the New Testament (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:1-33; Hebrews 4:1-16. Again and again we are warned throughout the Second Writings (AKA the New Testament) that we should diligently learn from the so-called Old Testament. We should hold on to the good examples (i.e. Hebrews chapters 11-12), all the while making sure that we not to repeat Israel's mistakes and failures. Please do not be deceived. Thank you for joining me. See you next time.
Brother Michel Lankford
Friday, May 6, 2011
God Is Pleading for Us to Hear Him
Christ's 28th Command
By Brother R. Michel Lankford
Please Read: Matthew 11:1-19, (Which is the full context of the command),
At the time, the people listening to Christ's words were struggling with the question. Who are these two men (meaning Joshua of Nazareth and John who baptized in the wilderness)? Are they agents of God? Are they impostors and frauds? Or are they simply insane? Is John the baptizer the forerunner of Messiah which was foretold or is he a fraud? Is Joshua, this Jesus of Nazareth truly the Messiah, the Christ who was promised by God and foretold by the prophets?
Yes! I believe that John the baptizer was the forerunner who operated in the spirit and power of Elijah, and I believe that Jesus/Joshua of Nazareth is in fact the Messiah and Christ sent by Almighty God. We must remember though, that at the time this discourse (Matthew 11:1-19) occurred, people were not at all sure who these two people were. They had certain expectations of the Messiah which teaching and tradition taught them to expect. While Jesus was meeting the biblical standards that were prophesied concerning Messiah, Jesus was not meeting the expectations that developed concerning Messiah according to the traditions of men. That left people in a quandary including John the Baptist himself. When John the baptizer was preaching in the wilderness, he was absolutely certain who and what Yeshua is (John 1:29; John 3:1-36), but when Yeshua did not fulfill what human traditions had taught that Messiah ought to be (remember He fulfilled the Scriptures but not the traditional teachings and expectations of men). People, including John the baptizer expected that Messiah would immediately overthrow all of Israel's enemies, and that the eternal kingdom would be instantly established. They completely forgot about the prophecy concerning the fact that Messiah would have to be cut off and killed for the sins of others (Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 53:1-12).
Even though it was completely prophesied concerning Messiah, these ideas had been completely pushed out by what had become the traditional teachings, beliefs and expectations of men concerning the Messiah. So when John the baptizer, who had faithfully preached the message of repentance and returning to God before the coming of Messiah suddenly found himself being arrested by Herod, I believe this was not what he expected. He struggled with doubts, because that turn of events ran completely contrary to what tradition concerning the Messiah had trained God's people to expect. That's why Jesus the Messiah sent John the reassuring message (Matthew 11:1-6).
Messiah then went on to give His affirmation of who John the baptizer was, and what John's ministry meant (Matthew 11:7-19).
As it is written:
In A larger sense each human being will face the same exact questions that first century Israelites encountered. Is this John the baptizer who baptized people into repentance in the River Jordan, was he the forerunner of the Messiah. If you believe that he is, then believing and obeying Messiah becomes that much easier. Messiah then proceeds to give the woeful curses on those cities that refuse to listen or refused to hear (Matthew 11:20-24).
Both Yahweh Almighty God and His Word Who became flesh, Jesus the Messiah have been constantly pleading for people to hear and hearken to His voice. Almost from the very beginning unto this very day, God has been pleading for people to hear, to receive, to pay attention to, to believe and to obey the voice of the LORD. That is a constant chorus throughout the Whole Testament of Scripture. He repeats it constantly, because we need constant reminding. In fact, the very phrase in our command, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear,' is repeated no less than 16 times in the 2nd writings (a.k.a. The New Testament). I have not counted how many times the sentiment is repeated through the whole counsel of God, but the concept is often repeated throughout the Whole Testament of Scripture. The point is that God is pleading for people to hear, to recognize, to receive, to believe and to obey the Voice of the LORD.
We will not do an exhaustive study of the command throughout the entire counsel of the Whole Testament, but I want to do a flyby of the concept spanning the entire Testament, so that you understand how important God considers this command. I do this not to exhaust your patience, but because this concept is so simple and yet so critical, and it is often the very simple yet most critical things that get neglected:
In Genesis, we see that God's word is so powerful that it created everything (Genesis 1). That way we can see that it can certainly re-create us. We see that Abraham and the patriarchs heard God, they were counted righteous because they believed, and through them God established the precedent of righteousness through faith (Genesis 12). By contrast we also see the effects of listening to the devil instead of listening to God (Genesis 3). In Genesis 4, we also see that Cain refused to hear God's counsel, therefore sin overtook him and he murdered his brother.
In Exodus, we see that Moses routinely heard and favorably responded to the voice of the Lord. God revealed Himself in special ways to Moses and those who heard God's word and acted upon it were delivered from God's judgment (i.e. Exodus chapters 3,12).
In Numbers, we see the tragedy that comes from listening to our own fears and refusing to hear God's voice (Numbers chapters 13, 14). The people refused to enter the land that God promised them because of their fears, but Joshua and Caleb were faithful to God's voice, and they were the only ones of that generation to enter the promised land.
In Deuteronomy, we see the entire law of God repeated for a new generation coming out of the wilderness and about to enter the promised land. The second telling of the law of God begins with a great cry of God's heart, which is often repeated every Sabbath day in congregations of God's faithful people throughout the world: "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! Deuteronomy 6:4 (NASB)
In the book of Joshua, we see that when God's people heard and obeyed God's voice, they won many miraculous victories against more powerful enemies (Joshua 6:1-27), but when they failed to either seek God's advice, they were deceived (Joshua 9:3-15). Or if they failed to obey God's voice, they lost even the so-called easy battles (Joshua 7:1-26).
In the book of Judges, we see the constant teeter totter of deliverance. For a while the people listen to God's voice, and obey His written word, but repeatedly they drift away from hearing and obeying God. They commit idolatry and other vile sins. God warns them to repent. They resist his voice. Israel's enemies triumph over them and oppress them for a while. They become overwhelmed under the burden. They cry out to God for deliverance. He sends a judge or deliverer who defeats the oppressor. Israel is then grateful and starts obeying God for a while but then repeatedly returns back into the old pattern of rebellion and disobedience and the pattern repeats itself through the entire book of Judges. That pattern of Israel's behavior is recounted also in Psalm 107. It is written there as an example for us not to repeat that bad habit.
In 1 Samuel, we see that offerings and ministries are okay, but they are only accepted by God after we hear and obey God's voice and directions. If we are willfully disobedient, our offerings are meaningless: 1 Samuel 15:22-23 Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king." (NASB)
In Job, we see a man who was constantly crying out to hear God's voice. He stayed faithful to what he knew God wanted him to do, and God rewarded him with seven times more than anything he'd lost.
In Psalms, we routinely see the psalmists begging God to help them to take heed and to obey God's word (i.e. Psalm 19; Psalm 119:36; Psalm 119:11, 112; Psalm 141:4). He also warned us not to repeat the sins of Israel in the wilderness (Psalm 95:7-11; cf. Hebrews 3:15-19).
In Proverbs, God's word is constantly pleading for us to listen to the voice of wisdom and to turn away from every foolishness.
In Ecclesiastes, we see that the whole point of human existence is to reverentially fear the Lord, and to hear, to learn and to keep His Commandments. Comparatively everything else is meaningless because we will all have to answer to God someday (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
I could go on to find many other examples throughout the First Writings, but you get the idea. The exact same sentiment is repeated constantly throughout the second writings:
In Matthew, we see that Messiah defeated the devil with the rightly divided Word (Matthew 4). We also see that hearing God's word and doing God's will actually ensure our entry into the kingdom of God (Matthew 7:21). Hearing His words will also ensure that we are not torn asunder, but that we successfully endured through the storms and difficulties of this life (Matthew 7:24-25).
In Mark, He warns us to be attentive and receptive to the word (Mark 4:3-9).
In Luke, He repeats the exact same instruction (Luke 8:4-8). In the same book we have clear examples that both Joseph the husband of Mary and the wise men were receptive to God's leading, and so Messiah was saved from premature death, thus helping to guarantee our salvation.
In John, we see that hearing, receiving, and abiding in God's word will make us disciples. It will cause us to know the truth, and it will free us from slavery to sin (John 8:31-36). We know that hearing His voice is one of the things that identifies and marks us as one of His people, because Christ's sheep hear His voice, and won't follow another (John 10:27). We know that hearing and doing His commands is what demonstrates that we really love Him (John 14:21). Hearing and doing His Word is what makes us fruitful and productive in Him (John 15:1-7). It's what brings us into friendship with Him (John 15:14). It's what sanctifies us and sets us apart unto God (John 17:17). It is also what unites us to Him (John 17:20).
In Acts, the entire book is absolutely filled with one account after another people who heard God's word, and the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit, and their lives were forever radically changed (i.e. the people on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2); and Paul the apostle (Acts 9).
In Romans, we see that hearing and responding to God is what identifies us as one of His children (Romans 8:14). Hearing God's word is what produces faith (Romans 10:17), and believing God's word when it is preached is what grants us God's salvation Romans 10:8-14).
In 1st Corinthians, the entire book deals with the idea of how the Word of God functions together with the moving of the Holy Spirit to transform lives (i.e. 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14).
In Ephesians, we see that the Word and the Spirit seals us (Ephesians 1:3). A husband can use the Word to sanctify his wife (Ephesians 5:26). God's Word is our principle weapon in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-20).
In Philippians, we learn how important it is that we hold on to God's word without fear (Philippians 1:14). We learn to hold on to the word through all our difficult circumstances so that all our struggles will not be in vain (Philippians 2:16).
In Colossians, we learn that the Word is the foundation for our hope (Colossians 1:5). We are encouraged to make the word of God fully known (Colossians 1:25). We are encouraged to allow the Word to dwell in us richly, to encourage, and admonish each other using the words that are found throughout the Testament (Colossians 3:16).
In 1st Thessalonians, we are to comfort and encourage one another with the hope that we find in God's word (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
In 2nd Thessalonians, we are told to comfort one another with the word (2 Thessalonians 2:17, and we are told to pray God's word will speed forward and the people will be open and receptive to the word (2 Thessalonians 3:1).
In 2 Timothy, we are told to follow the word (2 Timothy 1:13). We are told to be faithful to the word, correctly dividing and interpreting it (2 Timothy 2:14-15). We are guaranteed that if we stay faithful to it, it is sufficient to salvation, and it will leave us completely equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
In Hebrews, we encounter the word of God that is living and active, sharper Than a two edged sword. It's able to discern the soul and the spirit, joints and marrow, and to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart, so that we can repent before we have to be judged by God (Hebrews 4:12). We are encouraged to become mature and skillful in using the Word of God (Hebrews 5:11-13). We have an encouragement to remember all of those who live by God's word in the past, and to learn from their positive example (Hebrews chapter 11-12:1-2).
In James, we are encouraged to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. We again see that the Word is able to Save us. We are also warned that hearing and doing God's Word is our best safeguard against self-deception (James 1:19-25).
In 1 Peter, we are reminded that the word of God endures forever, and through it, we are born again (1 Peter 1:23-25). Therefore we should crave the word, in the same way the newborn babies crave mother's milk (1 Peter 2:2).
In the epistles of John, we are told that keeping God's word will perfect us in God's love, and confirmed that we are indeed in him (1 John 2:5). We are reminded that by abiding in God's word we overcome the evil one (1 John 2:14).
In the book of Revelation, God makes a final plea for us to hear His Words. He repeats this exact command, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." He repeats it some seven or eight times.
Beloved, that is not an exhaustive list but you get the point. He offers His Word to everyone who's willing to receive it (Isaiah 55:1-11). God doesn't want anybody to perish. He wants everyone to be saved (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4). He is eagerly willing to receive everyone that comes to Him (Matthew 11:28-30; John 6:37; Romans 10:13). The simple truth is that we will either hear God's Word and favorably respond to it so that we will be saved, or we will resist, neglect, diminish it, reject, or misuse God's word to our own destruction (Hebrews 3:15; 2 Peter 3:16).
I've said it in the past, and I will say it again:
I believe that Almighty God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them by speaking His Word (Genesis 1:1-3, 31). Therefore, I believe that God said what He meant and means what He says. I believe that all Scripture (Old Testament and New Testament) is God breathed, anointed and appointed by God.
I believe that it is all completely sufficient for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the people of God will be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
I believe that it is the refusal to rightly divide and obey God's word that is at the root cause of every human ill and character defect we will ever encounter.
I believe that when it is rightly divided and obediently applied in the context of being in right relationship with God and Jesus Christ, His Word is completely sufficient to give us true wisdom in every situation, guidance and comfort through every hardship, and victory in every battle.
This is why you want to avoid preachers and teachers who tickle your ears, who tell you what you want to hear or who diminish or change the word to suit their own purposes instead of faithfully pursuing God's purpose. It's not as though God has failed to repeatedly warn us. God is pleading with us to hear Him, to believe Him, to obey Him and to persevere with Him, and His Word. I want to be one of those people who enjoys the blessings of hearing and doing God's word, how about you?
Prayer: Almighty God Who created heaven and earth by the words of His mouth, have mercy upon me. Save me according to Your unfailing love. I admit that I have at times been willful, hardhearted, unreceptive and disobedient to Your Word. Please forgive me. Speak forth Your Word afresh in my heart, and save me from destruction (Psalm 107:20). Mercifully give me ears that truly hear You and what Your Holy Spirit says. Graciously transform my heart to be good, fertile ground for the seed of Your Word. Fill my heart with so much love toward God, that obeying Your Word doesn't even feel like a burden, but is instead always a delight and a joy. Grant that Your Word will produce an abundance of good fruit in my life. I commit my will to Your hands. I choose to be willing and obedient to You, but I need Your constant help to correctly fulfill that choice. Help me to be willing and obedient and to persevere in doing what truly pleases You, so that Your Word will truly become my salvation, and not my destruction. Graciously transform me and sanctify me by Your Word into one of Your children, who brings authentic joy and delight to Your heart. Mercifully grant this according to Your unfailing love, and also through Your Living Word made flesh, Yeshua the Messiah, amen.
By Brother R. Michel Lankford
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 11:15)
Please Read: Matthew 11:1-19, (Which is the full context of the command),
The Command in This Specific Context
It was well understood by the prophets and teachers of Torah that before Messiah came, either Elijah himself, or one operating in the spirit and power of Elijah would come to usher in the coming of Messiah. The key message of this latter Elijah would be repentance and a strong call for people to return to adherence to the written Word and Will of God (Malachi 4:4-5; Luke 1:13-17). Jesus Christ was declaring that John the Baptizer was indeed that prophesied precursor to the Messiah. The apostle Matthew agrees.At the time, the people listening to Christ's words were struggling with the question. Who are these two men (meaning Joshua of Nazareth and John who baptized in the wilderness)? Are they agents of God? Are they impostors and frauds? Or are they simply insane? Is John the baptizer the forerunner of Messiah which was foretold or is he a fraud? Is Joshua, this Jesus of Nazareth truly the Messiah, the Christ who was promised by God and foretold by the prophets?
Yes! I believe that John the baptizer was the forerunner who operated in the spirit and power of Elijah, and I believe that Jesus/Joshua of Nazareth is in fact the Messiah and Christ sent by Almighty God. We must remember though, that at the time this discourse (Matthew 11:1-19) occurred, people were not at all sure who these two people were. They had certain expectations of the Messiah which teaching and tradition taught them to expect. While Jesus was meeting the biblical standards that were prophesied concerning Messiah, Jesus was not meeting the expectations that developed concerning Messiah according to the traditions of men. That left people in a quandary including John the Baptist himself. When John the baptizer was preaching in the wilderness, he was absolutely certain who and what Yeshua is (John 1:29; John 3:1-36), but when Yeshua did not fulfill what human traditions had taught that Messiah ought to be (remember He fulfilled the Scriptures but not the traditional teachings and expectations of men). People, including John the baptizer expected that Messiah would immediately overthrow all of Israel's enemies, and that the eternal kingdom would be instantly established. They completely forgot about the prophecy concerning the fact that Messiah would have to be cut off and killed for the sins of others (Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 53:1-12).
Even though it was completely prophesied concerning Messiah, these ideas had been completely pushed out by what had become the traditional teachings, beliefs and expectations of men concerning the Messiah. So when John the baptizer, who had faithfully preached the message of repentance and returning to God before the coming of Messiah suddenly found himself being arrested by Herod, I believe this was not what he expected. He struggled with doubts, because that turn of events ran completely contrary to what tradition concerning the Messiah had trained God's people to expect. That's why Jesus the Messiah sent John the reassuring message (Matthew 11:1-6).
Messiah then went on to give His affirmation of who John the baptizer was, and what John's ministry meant (Matthew 11:7-19).
As it is written:
“And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear. ” (Matthew 11:14–15, NASB95)That phrase, 'And if you are willing to accept it...' is a very interesting terminology because on its face, it clearly suggests that each individual has a personal responsibility to accept the truths of God with which we are presented. Therefore this clearly refutes the idea that God's grace is absolutely irresistible, as some erroneously teach.
In A larger sense each human being will face the same exact questions that first century Israelites encountered. Is this John the baptizer who baptized people into repentance in the River Jordan, was he the forerunner of the Messiah. If you believe that he is, then believing and obeying Messiah becomes that much easier. Messiah then proceeds to give the woeful curses on those cities that refuse to listen or refused to hear (Matthew 11:20-24).
The Command in Its Broader Biblical Context
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 11:15)
Both Yahweh Almighty God and His Word Who became flesh, Jesus the Messiah have been constantly pleading for people to hear and hearken to His voice. Almost from the very beginning unto this very day, God has been pleading for people to hear, to receive, to pay attention to, to believe and to obey the voice of the LORD. That is a constant chorus throughout the Whole Testament of Scripture. He repeats it constantly, because we need constant reminding. In fact, the very phrase in our command, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear,' is repeated no less than 16 times in the 2nd writings (a.k.a. The New Testament). I have not counted how many times the sentiment is repeated through the whole counsel of God, but the concept is often repeated throughout the Whole Testament of Scripture. The point is that God is pleading for people to hear, to recognize, to receive, to believe and to obey the Voice of the LORD.
We will not do an exhaustive study of the command throughout the entire counsel of the Whole Testament, but I want to do a flyby of the concept spanning the entire Testament, so that you understand how important God considers this command. I do this not to exhaust your patience, but because this concept is so simple and yet so critical, and it is often the very simple yet most critical things that get neglected:
In Genesis, we see that God's word is so powerful that it created everything (Genesis 1). That way we can see that it can certainly re-create us. We see that Abraham and the patriarchs heard God, they were counted righteous because they believed, and through them God established the precedent of righteousness through faith (Genesis 12). By contrast we also see the effects of listening to the devil instead of listening to God (Genesis 3). In Genesis 4, we also see that Cain refused to hear God's counsel, therefore sin overtook him and he murdered his brother.
In Exodus, we see that Moses routinely heard and favorably responded to the voice of the Lord. God revealed Himself in special ways to Moses and those who heard God's word and acted upon it were delivered from God's judgment (i.e. Exodus chapters 3,12).
In Numbers, we see the tragedy that comes from listening to our own fears and refusing to hear God's voice (Numbers chapters 13, 14). The people refused to enter the land that God promised them because of their fears, but Joshua and Caleb were faithful to God's voice, and they were the only ones of that generation to enter the promised land.
In Deuteronomy, we see the entire law of God repeated for a new generation coming out of the wilderness and about to enter the promised land. The second telling of the law of God begins with a great cry of God's heart, which is often repeated every Sabbath day in congregations of God's faithful people throughout the world: "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! Deuteronomy 6:4 (NASB)
In the book of Joshua, we see that when God's people heard and obeyed God's voice, they won many miraculous victories against more powerful enemies (Joshua 6:1-27), but when they failed to either seek God's advice, they were deceived (Joshua 9:3-15). Or if they failed to obey God's voice, they lost even the so-called easy battles (Joshua 7:1-26).
In the book of Judges, we see the constant teeter totter of deliverance. For a while the people listen to God's voice, and obey His written word, but repeatedly they drift away from hearing and obeying God. They commit idolatry and other vile sins. God warns them to repent. They resist his voice. Israel's enemies triumph over them and oppress them for a while. They become overwhelmed under the burden. They cry out to God for deliverance. He sends a judge or deliverer who defeats the oppressor. Israel is then grateful and starts obeying God for a while but then repeatedly returns back into the old pattern of rebellion and disobedience and the pattern repeats itself through the entire book of Judges. That pattern of Israel's behavior is recounted also in Psalm 107. It is written there as an example for us not to repeat that bad habit.
In 1 Samuel, we see that offerings and ministries are okay, but they are only accepted by God after we hear and obey God's voice and directions. If we are willfully disobedient, our offerings are meaningless: 1 Samuel 15:22-23 Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king." (NASB)
In Job, we see a man who was constantly crying out to hear God's voice. He stayed faithful to what he knew God wanted him to do, and God rewarded him with seven times more than anything he'd lost.
In Psalms, we routinely see the psalmists begging God to help them to take heed and to obey God's word (i.e. Psalm 19; Psalm 119:36; Psalm 119:11, 112; Psalm 141:4). He also warned us not to repeat the sins of Israel in the wilderness (Psalm 95:7-11; cf. Hebrews 3:15-19).
In Proverbs, God's word is constantly pleading for us to listen to the voice of wisdom and to turn away from every foolishness.
In Ecclesiastes, we see that the whole point of human existence is to reverentially fear the Lord, and to hear, to learn and to keep His Commandments. Comparatively everything else is meaningless because we will all have to answer to God someday (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
I could go on to find many other examples throughout the First Writings, but you get the idea. The exact same sentiment is repeated constantly throughout the second writings:
In Matthew, we see that Messiah defeated the devil with the rightly divided Word (Matthew 4). We also see that hearing God's word and doing God's will actually ensure our entry into the kingdom of God (Matthew 7:21). Hearing His words will also ensure that we are not torn asunder, but that we successfully endured through the storms and difficulties of this life (Matthew 7:24-25).
In Mark, He warns us to be attentive and receptive to the word (Mark 4:3-9).
In Luke, He repeats the exact same instruction (Luke 8:4-8). In the same book we have clear examples that both Joseph the husband of Mary and the wise men were receptive to God's leading, and so Messiah was saved from premature death, thus helping to guarantee our salvation.
In John, we see that hearing, receiving, and abiding in God's word will make us disciples. It will cause us to know the truth, and it will free us from slavery to sin (John 8:31-36). We know that hearing His voice is one of the things that identifies and marks us as one of His people, because Christ's sheep hear His voice, and won't follow another (John 10:27). We know that hearing and doing His commands is what demonstrates that we really love Him (John 14:21). Hearing and doing His Word is what makes us fruitful and productive in Him (John 15:1-7). It's what brings us into friendship with Him (John 15:14). It's what sanctifies us and sets us apart unto God (John 17:17). It is also what unites us to Him (John 17:20).
In Acts, the entire book is absolutely filled with one account after another people who heard God's word, and the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit, and their lives were forever radically changed (i.e. the people on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2); and Paul the apostle (Acts 9).
In Romans, we see that hearing and responding to God is what identifies us as one of His children (Romans 8:14). Hearing God's word is what produces faith (Romans 10:17), and believing God's word when it is preached is what grants us God's salvation Romans 10:8-14).
In 1st Corinthians, the entire book deals with the idea of how the Word of God functions together with the moving of the Holy Spirit to transform lives (i.e. 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14).
In Ephesians, we see that the Word and the Spirit seals us (Ephesians 1:3). A husband can use the Word to sanctify his wife (Ephesians 5:26). God's Word is our principle weapon in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-20).
In Philippians, we learn how important it is that we hold on to God's word without fear (Philippians 1:14). We learn to hold on to the word through all our difficult circumstances so that all our struggles will not be in vain (Philippians 2:16).
In Colossians, we learn that the Word is the foundation for our hope (Colossians 1:5). We are encouraged to make the word of God fully known (Colossians 1:25). We are encouraged to allow the Word to dwell in us richly, to encourage, and admonish each other using the words that are found throughout the Testament (Colossians 3:16).
In 1st Thessalonians, we are to comfort and encourage one another with the hope that we find in God's word (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
In 2nd Thessalonians, we are told to comfort one another with the word (2 Thessalonians 2:17, and we are told to pray God's word will speed forward and the people will be open and receptive to the word (2 Thessalonians 3:1).
In 2 Timothy, we are told to follow the word (2 Timothy 1:13). We are told to be faithful to the word, correctly dividing and interpreting it (2 Timothy 2:14-15). We are guaranteed that if we stay faithful to it, it is sufficient to salvation, and it will leave us completely equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
In Hebrews, we encounter the word of God that is living and active, sharper Than a two edged sword. It's able to discern the soul and the spirit, joints and marrow, and to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart, so that we can repent before we have to be judged by God (Hebrews 4:12). We are encouraged to become mature and skillful in using the Word of God (Hebrews 5:11-13). We have an encouragement to remember all of those who live by God's word in the past, and to learn from their positive example (Hebrews chapter 11-12:1-2).
In James, we are encouraged to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. We again see that the Word is able to Save us. We are also warned that hearing and doing God's Word is our best safeguard against self-deception (James 1:19-25).
In 1 Peter, we are reminded that the word of God endures forever, and through it, we are born again (1 Peter 1:23-25). Therefore we should crave the word, in the same way the newborn babies crave mother's milk (1 Peter 2:2).
In the epistles of John, we are told that keeping God's word will perfect us in God's love, and confirmed that we are indeed in him (1 John 2:5). We are reminded that by abiding in God's word we overcome the evil one (1 John 2:14).
In the book of Revelation, God makes a final plea for us to hear His Words. He repeats this exact command, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." He repeats it some seven or eight times.
Beloved, that is not an exhaustive list but you get the point. He offers His Word to everyone who's willing to receive it (Isaiah 55:1-11). God doesn't want anybody to perish. He wants everyone to be saved (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4). He is eagerly willing to receive everyone that comes to Him (Matthew 11:28-30; John 6:37; Romans 10:13). The simple truth is that we will either hear God's Word and favorably respond to it so that we will be saved, or we will resist, neglect, diminish it, reject, or misuse God's word to our own destruction (Hebrews 3:15; 2 Peter 3:16).
I've said it in the past, and I will say it again:
I believe that Almighty God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them by speaking His Word (Genesis 1:1-3, 31). Therefore, I believe that God said what He meant and means what He says. I believe that all Scripture (Old Testament and New Testament) is God breathed, anointed and appointed by God.
I believe that it is all completely sufficient for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the people of God will be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
I believe that it is the refusal to rightly divide and obey God's word that is at the root cause of every human ill and character defect we will ever encounter.
I believe that when it is rightly divided and obediently applied in the context of being in right relationship with God and Jesus Christ, His Word is completely sufficient to give us true wisdom in every situation, guidance and comfort through every hardship, and victory in every battle.
This is why you want to avoid preachers and teachers who tickle your ears, who tell you what you want to hear or who diminish or change the word to suit their own purposes instead of faithfully pursuing God's purpose. It's not as though God has failed to repeatedly warn us. God is pleading with us to hear Him, to believe Him, to obey Him and to persevere with Him, and His Word. I want to be one of those people who enjoys the blessings of hearing and doing God's word, how about you?
Prayer: Almighty God Who created heaven and earth by the words of His mouth, have mercy upon me. Save me according to Your unfailing love. I admit that I have at times been willful, hardhearted, unreceptive and disobedient to Your Word. Please forgive me. Speak forth Your Word afresh in my heart, and save me from destruction (Psalm 107:20). Mercifully give me ears that truly hear You and what Your Holy Spirit says. Graciously transform my heart to be good, fertile ground for the seed of Your Word. Fill my heart with so much love toward God, that obeying Your Word doesn't even feel like a burden, but is instead always a delight and a joy. Grant that Your Word will produce an abundance of good fruit in my life. I commit my will to Your hands. I choose to be willing and obedient to You, but I need Your constant help to correctly fulfill that choice. Help me to be willing and obedient and to persevere in doing what truly pleases You, so that Your Word will truly become my salvation, and not my destruction. Graciously transform me and sanctify me by Your Word into one of Your children, who brings authentic joy and delight to Your heart. Mercifully grant this according to Your unfailing love, and also through Your Living Word made flesh, Yeshua the Messiah, amen.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Do Not Think I Came to Bring Peace, But a Sword
Christ's 27th Command:
By Brother R. Michel Lankford
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Matthew 10:34 (NKJV)
Please Read: Matthew 10:24-39, (Which is the full context of the command)
Understanding the Command
This is not the first time that the Whole Testament challenges us to direct our thinking correctly:· Deuteronomy 6:4-9 tells us how often we are to think and speak God's Words (cf. Joshua 1:7-8; Psalm 1).
· Isaiah 26:3 tells us to fix and stabilize our minds on Almighty God, and He will keep us in perfect peace when we Trust in Him (cf. John 14:27).
· Isaiah 55:1-9 tells us that redirecting our thinking is part of the repentance which will bring God's abundant forgiveness into our lives.
· The whole gospel account according to Matthew describes to us how to think according to the kingdom of Almighty God.
· Romans 12:1-2 clearly tells us that if we want to know and do the will of God successfully, we must let God renew our minds, so that our thinking patterns and our behaviors will not conform to the sinful and ungodly world (cf. Romans 8:5-8).
· The whole book of Philippians tells us how to keep ourselves encouraged by developing a God and Christ centered mindset.
So as you can see, developing a God centered and Christ centered mindset is a key to living as a successful disciple. Those are just a few examples on how the idea transcends the Whole Testament of Scripture.
The only imperative or command in Matthew 10:34 is, "Do not think..." Once again, Messiah is pointing out that in order to obey God and persevere in obeying God through difficult times, we are going to have to learn to think correctly.
Understanding the Principle behind the Command
When Messiah is saying, "Do not think...," He is not seeking or desiring to exercise some mystical form of mind control. He is trying to prepare us for the reality of living in a sinful world. Messiah's trying to prepare us to survive, to overcome, and even help us to thrive in the midst of difficult times. An essential part of doing that is that we must learn to think correctly.Proverbs 13:12 specifically tells us that, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is the tree of life." In Biblical language, to hope literally means to place "a confident expectation" in a specific result. According to the proverb we just read, having our confident expectations not be fulfilled, when what we hope for does not come to pass, then we become heartsick. That is why it becomes vital for us to put our hope and our confident expectations in the right place, so that our hopes have a better chance of being fulfilled and less chance of being deferred.
In about 20 years of service to our Lord and Master, I've seen many would-be disciples become utterly crushed because their expectations and hopes were not fulfilled. Without fail, some diligent investigation has always proved that they were expecting God to do something or to prevent something, and the outcome did not occur as they hoped or expected that it would.
Without fully conceiving or admitting it in their conscious mind, many believers believe that God failed them or let them down in some way. The belief that God let them down because their confident hope was deferred and they became heartsick is not accurate of course. Those that correctly place their hope in the Lord will not be disappointed (see Romans 5:1-5; Romans 9:33; Romans 10:11; 1 Peter 2:6).
In my experience, investigation has always proved that the problem was that the disciple actually places their hope in the wrong place. That is to say, they placed their confident expectation towards a result that either God did not actually promise, or if God did indeed promise what they were expecting, the promise was made with conditions attached which the believer clearly did not rightly fulfill, and that is why they did not receive the result they were expecting. The reason that God and Jesus Christ gives us very specific instructions about how we are supposed to think is because God does not want us to put our hopes and expectations in the wrong place, and as a result we would make ourselves heartsick needlessly.
This is why such false teachings and worldly philosophies such as the Roman Catholic's ecumenical movement for example, (which tries to artificially produce unity and peace on earth through control and political means) is so dangerous, because it produces a false representation of what it means to be Christian, and a false expectation at the same time. The Roman Catholic Church is not alone in trying to sell this pipe dream to the body of Christ. Both the seeker sensitive movement and the emerging church movement so prevalent in the Protestant churches have also attempted to push the doctrine of peace and unity on earth at virtually any cost, even if it means abandoning sound biblical doctrine and truth to do it. There are many who will call themselves Christians in our present day who incorrectly believe that the primary goal of the church is to unify the world into a universal lack of conflict. This is a misconception. The primary function of the church is to preach and demonstrate true repentance and how to be disciples who function according to the decrees of the kingdom of God, so that sinners will repent and escape the judgment that is sure to come. That's the primary function of the church.
Beloved, I dislike conflict, confrontation, war and devastation as much, if not more than the average person.
Yes, it would be nice if every heart, if every mind, if every person's will and every soul were correctly aligned and agreeable to Almighty God, to Jesus Christ and to the Holy Spirit. It would be awesome if every human being's goal was to actively overcome their garbage, to correctly obey and apply God's principles, and each one treated their neighbor as they themselves would want to be treated (Matthew 7:12). If all we have to do is make nice and shake hands, it would be great. Wouldn't it be lovely if all we had to do was hold hands with our neighbor swaying back and forth, (in unison of course), and sing Kum ba yah, my lord, Kum ba yah. That would be great. It would also be called the garden of Eden before humankind fell into sin, or the kingdom of God.
As a result of the misconceptions and misplaced expectations such as the ones described above, many people have even taken up the dangerous practice of judging God. Think about it. How many of us have heard the old-line, 'Well, if God was for real, then how come there is so much pain, sorrow, suffering and death in the world?'
The answer is simple. It's called SIN. When God gave us the world, it was in perfect order. When God first gave us the world, there was no evil. At that time, there was no sorrow, no disease and no death (Genesis chapters 1-2). Almighty God gave humanity (Adam and Eve, and we their descendants) were given the stewardship and guardianship of the perfect world He created. In Genesis 3, we see that humankind started listening to and then obeying the devil instead of obeying God.
Each successive generation has since followed the exact same pattern of devastation. The answer to the skeptical question, "Well, if God is for real then why is the world in such a mess?" When God gave it to us it wasn't a mess. We are in the mess we're in because each successive generation disobeys God and listens to the devil, and satan then takes unfair advantage of the mileage that we give him. We sin, and we are the ones who bring devastation into the world. Beloved, we need to quit blaming God for our sins and the wreckage it creates.
The truth is that right now, we don't live in the garden of Eden anymore, nor do we live in the kingdom of God yet. There will be a time when God renews all things. At that time there will be no more sin or sorrow, no more pain and no more death for the people of God (Daniel 9:24; Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-9). Until that time arrives, our job is to repent and turn away from evil, persevere and grow in knowing and obeying Almighty God and Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can overcome the evil that is in the world through our faith (1 John 5:1-5; Revelation 21:7).
In the meantime we can seek for peace, we can pursue peace, (Psalm 34:14; Romans 12:18), but we should by no means set our hopes and expectations there, because our hopes will be deferred if we place our hope and peace on earth while we are in our present age (Jeremiah 6:14). Until the great day of the ultimate Restoration finally arrives, Messiah tells us that He did not come to bring peace. He specifically tells us not to put our expectations there, lest our hopes be deferred and we would lose heart. God's people have a lot to persevere through and overcome before we finally see The Great Day of Restoration, and we need to be prepared. That's why Messiah tells us exactly what we should expect in the meantime:
· If you love Almighty God and Jesus Christ and your goal is to do right in His eyes, then we should expect that both the sinful world, and those in the religious world who are hypocrites will hate and revile us for it, just as they did the Messiah (Matthew 10:24-25; John 3:16-21; Matthew 5:12).
· If you love Almighty God and Jesus Christ and your goal is to do right in His eyes, then we should expect persecution and not applause, at least not yet (Matthew 5:11; John 16:1-4; James 1:2-4; 2 Timothy 3:13).
When God's word instructs us to direct our thinking a particular way, He does so for a particular reason. He does it for our protection. God knows the future and we do not. When God tells us to think or not to think in a certain manner, it is because He does not want us to put our hope and expectation in the wrong place. He does not want us to get our hope deferred and to make ourselves heartsick when our misplaced expectations are not fulfilled.
Successfully Obeying the Command
As with every Biblical command, the most important discussion to have is, "How do I obey this command successfully?" This is a particularly tough question to ask whenever the commands and promises of God we encounter lean contrary to our preferences are comforts, but that is when it is most particularly important to ask this question and take steps in agreement with God's direction because it will take more than just the usual effort. So how can we strengthen ourselves to persevere in the midst of difficult times and overcome them? This is by no means an exhaustive scriptural list, but here are the basic instructions:1. Acknowledge and admit your present difficulties. Bring them to the Lord. Admit them, do not deny them, but commit both yourself and your present difficulties to the Lord. Ask God to help you to be especially careful so that you will continue to apply His Words and Principles correctly in the midst of your present challenge (Psalm 37:1-9).
2. Reframe your situation within your mind. This is one of the hardest things to do, but it is an absolute must if we are to overcome successfully. We have to remember that in this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33). We will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). We should not be surprised when it occurs, (1 Peter 4:12). What we have to remember is to reframe them in our mind. That is to say, we have to attach the correct meaning behind our suffering.
a). Our sufferings and challenges are known to God. He is not unaware of them, and yes He does care about us in the midst of them (Matthew 10:29).
b). We must remember that God intends to use our weaknesses challenges and difficulties for our ultimate well-being, in order to refine and transform us into the nature and character of His Son Jesus Christ. Remember that our pains and challenges are intended to transform and restore us, and never to destroy us (Psalm 106:1; Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 8:28; James 1:2-4; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Romans 5:1-5; Revelation 21:7). The key; the difficult part is to persevere in trusting and obeying God and continuing to do what pleases Him until our victories are manifest. That's the tough part, but it makes the difference between restoration or ruin. The scariest part is that the choice is in our own hands (Galatians 6:7-10).
c). The last thing we have to remember when we are trying to reframe our challenging situations in our mind is to remember to turn the tables. Think about it. If the persecutions, the trials, the tribulations and the challenges are happening just as Messiah forewarned us they would, then in one sense this too should serve to actually increase our hope in our minds. That's because, if the difficult times which Christ's forewarned are happening just as He said they would, then that means that the promises and benefits of persevering in obeying God and keeping faith in Jesus Christ are also equally true, and therefore, this should serve as an encouragement to us to persevere until we successfully overcome.
3. Abide in the Words of God and Jesus Christ (John 15:1-11): We hear that word a lot in church, but very often we get so busy that we don't take time to really digest what it truly means to "Abide." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) actually describes the word abide quite well. To abide means to endure and wait for without yielding. In the biblical sense, to abide literally means that we take up residence and establish our lives in a particular location. In this case, we are to take up residence, establish our lives, practice doing God's word repeatedly, endure and wait in the words of God and Jesus Christ without yielding that position. If we learn to do that we will eventually win and overcome through whatever difficulties we encounter.
Prayer: Almighty God, Lord Jesus Messiah, and gracious Lord Holy Spirit, have mercy on us. We do not relish difficult times, but your word makes it very clear that we will have them. Resenting it, resisting it, whining complaining, grumbling, and fretting about it only wastes valuable energy that we need in order to overcome, so please help us not to do that. Help us to think correctly so that we will not be deceived or disillusioned. By your grace and mercy, help us to respond correctly to our difficulties. Help us to abide in Your Word. Help us to correctly do Your Word, and help us to persevere in doing Your Word until we thoroughly overcome. In Christ's name, amen.
Friday, April 22, 2011
In Spirit and in Truth
By Brother Michel Lankford
Many believers are familiar with the biblical account of the woman at the well. We're all familiar with how Messiah struck up a conversation with her. He started out talking about everyday things and gingerly move the conversation over to her eternal needs. He started out asking her for a drink so that he could offer her eternal, living water.
As you will remember from the Bible study techniques review that we discussed in the blog (April 20,2011), whenever you want to find the key passages from any chapter of Scripture which you are reading, remember to look for God first. If you see a passage in your study chapter that describes God's character, God's desires, God's commands, God's principles, or God's promises clearly defined, then those types of verses must take priority as your key verses. In the case of John chapter 4, we see Messiah describing exactly what, God desires and requires from those who would worship Him. I've identified the key verses for you to save time on this occasion:
"Jesus *said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman *said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." Jesus *said to her, "I who speak to you am He." John 4:21-26 (NASB)
1. In John chapter 4, verses 21-26 are your key verses. Here's why we know this to be true. First, it identifies who Jesus as the Messiah (V. 26).
2. In this passage we understand that worship without knowledge is not as effective, not as acceptable (V. 22).
3. This passage identifies from where our salvation comes (V. 22).
4. This passage identifies what acceptable worship is and what the Father seeks. God seeks people who will worship Him, both in the right spirit and according to the truth (V. 23-4).
Several things struck me hard as never before when I was studying this passage this time around. I thought I would share them with you. I hope that it will help you as you become a more obedient disciple of God and Jesus Christ:
a. “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” In this postmodern politically correct age, many ministers are fearful of confronting sin, but confronting it is the only way to bring God's real and lasting healing and salvation into people's lives. Under the power of the Holy Spirit, Messiah proceeds to tell the woman that she has had five husbands and the when she was living with now was not even her husband. He was not cruel about it. He was not insulting, but He did confront sin. He did not sidestep the issue. If we are going to be effective disciples and disciple makers, then we must confront the issues of sin in our lives(John 8:31-38).
b. Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Jesus operated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, He operated in those gifts very naturally. He did not call attention to Himself or to the gifts, merely for the sake of the gifts themselves. He did not allow the gifts in which He was operating to overshadow the ministry that the Father sent him to do on behalf of the woman.
c. "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." The Samaritan woman commented that she knew Jesus was a prophet because He was aware of her sins and confronted her with them.
Many theologians speculate that she might have been trying to distract Jesus by bringing up theological questions. She may have honestly wanted to know because she had a desire to be restored back to God. I tend to lean in that direction because God the Father specifically sent Messiah to her, (cf. John 5:19), so she must've been seeking to be restored before God. Otherwise Jesus would not have been sent there by the Father. Moreover, the text does not explicitly tell us what the motives of her heart were, so when in doubt, it is much more charitable that we should assume the best instead of the worst.
Moreover, her question reveals something of the universal question that sooner or later, every worshiper will face. How do I really know that the way I worship God is really and truly acceptable to the Lord? If you truly care about your relationship with God and doing what pleases Him, then you will face that question at one time or another.
Whatever her motives were, Jesus used her question is a teachable moment. He used it as an opportunity to get God's true message across to her and to the generations who would be reading the passage about her.
In her own way, the Samaritan woman revealed that she had an understanding of God which our modern and postmodern theology is rapidly losing. She understood that as gracious as God is, He does not always accept every form and every method, or every act of worship simply because we offer it to Him. She understood that God does have real and concrete standards about what He accepts, and what He does not. She also realized that there was a real division in debate among believers in Almighty God about what was right and what was not right when it came to worshiping the Most High God.
It turns out that her question truly did and in fact still does have some real theological merit. It so happens that the Samaritan woman understand something which modern-day Christendom is rapidly forgetting. God is pretty particular about what He does and what He does not accept in our worship. This aroused my curiosity. Scripturally, is there a way to tell what kind of worship God accepts, versus what kind of worship the Almighty will reject? The answer is yes. Scripture is surprisingly quite detailed about what God requires, and what it means to worship God in spirit and truth. In the past few blog entries we discussed the kind of worship that God rejects. In this blog entry, we will focus primarily on what God does accept in worship.
d. "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know...."
According to Nelson's illustrated manners and customs of the Bible, the mountain upon which the Samaritans worshiped was mount Gerizimi, which from The Samaritan point of view was the place where Abraham offered Isaac and where God first revealed Himself (Genesis 22:2 ff). By Jewish tradition, the place where this occurred was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
On Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritans worshipped, they were known for their emotionalism and their ecstatic speech---but they had ignored key truths from the Old Testament...so they had the spirit without truth... much like many contemporary worship services today.
On the other hand, at Jerusalem, where the Jews worshipped, they had made OT truth an old, dry, lifeless set of rituals...it was truth without spirit....much like many traditional services today.
Pastor John MacArthur comments; "The worship that occurred on Mount Gerizim was enthusiastic heresy. The worship offered at Jerusalem was barren, lifeless orthodoxy. Jerusalem had the truth but not the spirit. Gerizim had the spirit but not the truth. Jesus rebuked both styles of worship when he said, ‘God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.’ The two enemies of true worship are Gerizim and Jerusalem. Sincerity, enthusiasm, and aggressiveness are important, but they must be based on truth. And truth is foundational, but if it doesn’t result in an eager, excited, enthusiastic heart, it is deficient. Enthusiastic heresy is heat without light. Barren orthodoxy is light without heat."
In order for the worship to be acceptable and pleasing before the Lord, it must be done in the right spirit, and it must be done according to the truth. Otherwise, it simply is not acceptable worship. We will give more details on that later.
For me, the comment, "You worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know," was a pretty profound statement for the King of Kings and Messiah to make. Think about it. He is acknowledging that the Samaritans had a tradition of trying to worship Almighty God, but that at the same time, they were worshiping God in such a way, that their worship demonstrated that they did not accurately know the One whom they were worshiping, nor did they truly understand what God required and desired from them. I sincerely believe with all my heart, that the very same thing could accurately be said about modern day American Christendom.
When you look at what is commonly accepted in church, and you compare it with the Whole Testament of Scripture, it is abundantly clear that very often we accept things and we present things as worship that neither Almighty God, nor His Son the Messiah would recognize as something honoring to Him. For the record, I am not talking about the various instrumental choices. I'm not talking about whether you use hymnals are overhead projectors. I'm not talking about whether you sing hymns or choruses. All of that amounts to window dressing.
However, when we adapt worldly, American business mass marketing and manipulation techniques and call it being "seeker sensitive," it shows that we don't really know God and understand what He requires from His disciples. When we accept motivational speaking, and we resent the unadulterated Word of God being exposited, we demonstrate that we don't really know the God that we worship. When we accept teachings of the false prosperity message as fact, even when Scripture does not accurately support it, that clearly shows a definite lack of understanding. When we accept worldly postmodern philosophy and heresy which denies the gospel and refuses the authority of Scripture as doctrine, and we blend that into evangelical Christianity, and we call it an emerging church, it not only shows a lack of understanding, but it's a dangerous heresy. That's not worship, it's a tragedy.
What seems even worse to me is that while many in modern-day Christendom acknowledge and even lament all of these enormous fallacies as being problematic, so many of our Christian so-called leaders in our day seem to take a lackadaisical almost fatalistic response to the problem.
The response I hear most often, even among those who agree that this is a problem will be, "Well, we are in the last days, and this is what's supposed to happen in the last days." Yes, I agree that we are in the last days. Yes, I know that evil men and imposters will get worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13). Yes, I know that we are in a time when people do not accept sound doctrine. We are definitely in the season where people are gathering up teachers for themselves that only tell them exactly what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:1-4), but we are told to hold fast, Preach the word, to be ready in season and out of season. We are told to convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. We are told to be watchful in all things, to endure afflictions, to do the work of an evangelist, to fulfill our ministry (2 Timothy 4:2-5). We are expressly told to earnestly contend for that faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). So where is it written that because we are in the last days and difficult times are prophesied, that we who call ourselves the Lord's servants, should roll over and play dead? Where is it written that we should coexist with wickedness and even call heresy Christian in the name of grace and tolerance? Where is that written?
e. "For salvation is from the Jews..."
In one sense the modern attitude is not surprising. We have a history of forgetting that our salvation truly is from the Jews. For almost 1700 years, the organized church establishment has systematically trained people to either discount or totally reject 59% of Holy Scripture. This is a practice that continues to this day, because that is what you do when you treat the Old Testament as obsolete. In reality though, to discount or reject the instructions of the so-called Old Testament means that you also have to reject almost 5% of the New Testament as well. So altogether, when one rejects or diminishes the instructions of the Old Testament they are actually rejecting almost 2/3 of Scripture altogether. And still we have the nerve to wonder why we do not seem as thoroughly equipped for every good work as the saints once were.
When we actively bring forth the very same names, practices, and feast days and traditions that were used to worship pagan sex gods for centuries, (which are really demons; 1 Corinthians 10:20-21; 1 Timothy 4:1) but still we eagerly enfold and embrace them into Christian faith and practice, and we call it worship unto Almighty God and Jesus Christ, and we do it in direct rebellion to God's commandments, then it's obvious we are demonstrating that we are worshiping what we do not know.
What blows my mind is that the Christian establishment will lament how many pastors and ministers are ensnared in sexual sin (some estimates place the number of pastors addicted to pornography at almost 40%). We will hear from the various pulpits how shameful it is that 66% of Christian marriages end in divorce. Is it any wonder? If we actively invite and embrace sex demons into the church every winter and spring, (in direct violation to God's commandments I might add), then how can we rightly hope to overcome them through the summer and fall?
Beloved, even the Samaritans in Christ's day would not have accepted the practices we tolerate as a common part of worship, and yet Christ said that they were worshiping what they did not know. How much more ignorant would Jesus consider the modern Christian? I shudder to think of it.
We have clearly demonstrated over and over again that we are worshiping what we do not know, just as the Samaritans were doing in Christ's day. Let those who have ears to hear take heed of what the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures say. Let those who are wise and discerning, grow in understanding. Far be it from us a Lord that we should choose to remain ignorant for the sake of our own pleasure, comforts, and traditions.
"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Since God is looking and seeking for people who worship him in spirit and truth, it stands to reason that we should first understand what that means.
To worship God in spirit: To worship God in spirit obviously means that our spirit (since the word spirit in the verse is not capitalized), it is not referring necessarily to the Holy Spirit, but to human spirit, must be correctly aligned with God. That means that we cannot be worshiping false gods nor should we be worshiping the True God in such a way that dishonors Him. We spent multiple blog entries that idea and giving the Scriptures behind it, so there's no point in reiterating it now. Suffice it to say that in order for worship to be acceptable it has to be completely agreeable to Almighty God, to the Messiah and to the the Holy Spirit. It cannot invite or embrace anything that would be offensive to the Almighty at all.
To worship God in truth: The second criteria that Messiah gave to describe the kinds of worshipers that the Almighty was seeking to worship Him were those who worship God both in spirit, but also in truth. So what does it mean to worship God in truth? I believe that is a vital question. If you look at the word in the original biblical language the New Testament Greek word used is; alētheia [1] meaning; that which is in accord with what really happens, facts that correspond to a reality, whether historical (in the time/space continuum, or to be accurate in the realm that moves beyond time and space So, in order to be true worship it must be accurate to what is happening both in this realm of our present reality and also in the realm of the next.
Now there can be no reasonable doubt in any person's mind that there is no place where God is worshiped more purely than in the Kingdom of Heaven. We know for certain that God is worshiped most purely and accurately in that realm. To worship God in truth means that we would worship God in a way that agrees with what is truly happening both in this realm and in the next. So imagine for example that we were in the presence of the most Holy Almighty God. Imagine for instance that you are all of once fully aware of His perfection, His perfect love, and also His capacity for justifiable wrath over wickedness.
Please, use your sanctified imagination for a moment. What do you think would happen in Glory if a person approached God with the name of a demon sex goddess on his lips and he then heralded her name in a praiseworthy manner right along with the name of God's Son Jesus Christ? What if the 'worshiper' insisted that even though he was using the name of this demon sex goddess, it was really okay, because he was really trying to honor Jesus Christ, the risen Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Can you sincerely tell me beyond a reasonable doubt based on the Scriptures that such a practice would be acceptable in the courts of Glory?! A snowball would have greater chance of surviving a Mojave desert summer, than for such a behavior to be accepted in God's kingdom, and you know it. We know that in God's Kingdom, even the wedding guests who refuse to wear the robes that the bridegroom provides will be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 22:11-13). So, what do you imagine he would do to the 'worshiper' in our example? Is there any biblical basis to believe that his behavior would pass, while the improperly dressed men is howling in agony? Think about it.
Even in modern English the definitions and synonyms for the word truth is very telling. It is very close to the word used in the original biblical language. Here are the synonyms for truth even in our modern-day language according to Encarta Encyclopedia: Synonyms: fact, certainty, reality, actuality, veracity, verity; reality, fact, accuracy, genuineness, precision, exactness, legitimacy, veracity, truthfulness; honesty, candor, integrity, dedication, loyalty, devotion, fidelity, uprightness, sincerity.
Please, to Not continue to use the name and traditions for worshiping the Babylonian goddess of fertility (Easter) to honor the resurrection of Messiah. That's Roman Catholic tradition of men. It's not worshiping God in spirit and truth. What's more, it's expressly forbidden (Jeremiah 10:1-2; Deuteronomy 12:28-32; 1 Corinthians 10:15-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; Mark 7:9-13).
[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
Many believers are familiar with the biblical account of the woman at the well. We're all familiar with how Messiah struck up a conversation with her. He started out talking about everyday things and gingerly move the conversation over to her eternal needs. He started out asking her for a drink so that he could offer her eternal, living water.
As you will remember from the Bible study techniques review that we discussed in the blog (April 20,2011), whenever you want to find the key passages from any chapter of Scripture which you are reading, remember to look for God first. If you see a passage in your study chapter that describes God's character, God's desires, God's commands, God's principles, or God's promises clearly defined, then those types of verses must take priority as your key verses. In the case of John chapter 4, we see Messiah describing exactly what, God desires and requires from those who would worship Him. I've identified the key verses for you to save time on this occasion:
"Jesus *said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman *said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." Jesus *said to her, "I who speak to you am He." John 4:21-26 (NASB)
1. In John chapter 4, verses 21-26 are your key verses. Here's why we know this to be true. First, it identifies who Jesus as the Messiah (V. 26).
2. In this passage we understand that worship without knowledge is not as effective, not as acceptable (V. 22).
3. This passage identifies from where our salvation comes (V. 22).
4. This passage identifies what acceptable worship is and what the Father seeks. God seeks people who will worship Him, both in the right spirit and according to the truth (V. 23-4).
Several things struck me hard as never before when I was studying this passage this time around. I thought I would share them with you. I hope that it will help you as you become a more obedient disciple of God and Jesus Christ:
a. “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” In this postmodern politically correct age, many ministers are fearful of confronting sin, but confronting it is the only way to bring God's real and lasting healing and salvation into people's lives. Under the power of the Holy Spirit, Messiah proceeds to tell the woman that she has had five husbands and the when she was living with now was not even her husband. He was not cruel about it. He was not insulting, but He did confront sin. He did not sidestep the issue. If we are going to be effective disciples and disciple makers, then we must confront the issues of sin in our lives(John 8:31-38).
b. Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Jesus operated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, He operated in those gifts very naturally. He did not call attention to Himself or to the gifts, merely for the sake of the gifts themselves. He did not allow the gifts in which He was operating to overshadow the ministry that the Father sent him to do on behalf of the woman.
c. "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." The Samaritan woman commented that she knew Jesus was a prophet because He was aware of her sins and confronted her with them.
Many theologians speculate that she might have been trying to distract Jesus by bringing up theological questions. She may have honestly wanted to know because she had a desire to be restored back to God. I tend to lean in that direction because God the Father specifically sent Messiah to her, (cf. John 5:19), so she must've been seeking to be restored before God. Otherwise Jesus would not have been sent there by the Father. Moreover, the text does not explicitly tell us what the motives of her heart were, so when in doubt, it is much more charitable that we should assume the best instead of the worst.
Moreover, her question reveals something of the universal question that sooner or later, every worshiper will face. How do I really know that the way I worship God is really and truly acceptable to the Lord? If you truly care about your relationship with God and doing what pleases Him, then you will face that question at one time or another.
Whatever her motives were, Jesus used her question is a teachable moment. He used it as an opportunity to get God's true message across to her and to the generations who would be reading the passage about her.
In her own way, the Samaritan woman revealed that she had an understanding of God which our modern and postmodern theology is rapidly losing. She understood that as gracious as God is, He does not always accept every form and every method, or every act of worship simply because we offer it to Him. She understood that God does have real and concrete standards about what He accepts, and what He does not. She also realized that there was a real division in debate among believers in Almighty God about what was right and what was not right when it came to worshiping the Most High God.
It turns out that her question truly did and in fact still does have some real theological merit. It so happens that the Samaritan woman understand something which modern-day Christendom is rapidly forgetting. God is pretty particular about what He does and what He does not accept in our worship. This aroused my curiosity. Scripturally, is there a way to tell what kind of worship God accepts, versus what kind of worship the Almighty will reject? The answer is yes. Scripture is surprisingly quite detailed about what God requires, and what it means to worship God in spirit and truth. In the past few blog entries we discussed the kind of worship that God rejects. In this blog entry, we will focus primarily on what God does accept in worship.
d. "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know...."
According to Nelson's illustrated manners and customs of the Bible, the mountain upon which the Samaritans worshiped was mount Gerizimi, which from The Samaritan point of view was the place where Abraham offered Isaac and where God first revealed Himself (Genesis 22:2 ff). By Jewish tradition, the place where this occurred was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
On Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritans worshipped, they were known for their emotionalism and their ecstatic speech---but they had ignored key truths from the Old Testament...so they had the spirit without truth... much like many contemporary worship services today.
On the other hand, at Jerusalem, where the Jews worshipped, they had made OT truth an old, dry, lifeless set of rituals...it was truth without spirit....much like many traditional services today.
Pastor John MacArthur comments; "The worship that occurred on Mount Gerizim was enthusiastic heresy. The worship offered at Jerusalem was barren, lifeless orthodoxy. Jerusalem had the truth but not the spirit. Gerizim had the spirit but not the truth. Jesus rebuked both styles of worship when he said, ‘God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.’ The two enemies of true worship are Gerizim and Jerusalem. Sincerity, enthusiasm, and aggressiveness are important, but they must be based on truth. And truth is foundational, but if it doesn’t result in an eager, excited, enthusiastic heart, it is deficient. Enthusiastic heresy is heat without light. Barren orthodoxy is light without heat."
In order for the worship to be acceptable and pleasing before the Lord, it must be done in the right spirit, and it must be done according to the truth. Otherwise, it simply is not acceptable worship. We will give more details on that later.
For me, the comment, "You worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know," was a pretty profound statement for the King of Kings and Messiah to make. Think about it. He is acknowledging that the Samaritans had a tradition of trying to worship Almighty God, but that at the same time, they were worshiping God in such a way, that their worship demonstrated that they did not accurately know the One whom they were worshiping, nor did they truly understand what God required and desired from them. I sincerely believe with all my heart, that the very same thing could accurately be said about modern day American Christendom.
When you look at what is commonly accepted in church, and you compare it with the Whole Testament of Scripture, it is abundantly clear that very often we accept things and we present things as worship that neither Almighty God, nor His Son the Messiah would recognize as something honoring to Him. For the record, I am not talking about the various instrumental choices. I'm not talking about whether you use hymnals are overhead projectors. I'm not talking about whether you sing hymns or choruses. All of that amounts to window dressing.
However, when we adapt worldly, American business mass marketing and manipulation techniques and call it being "seeker sensitive," it shows that we don't really know God and understand what He requires from His disciples. When we accept motivational speaking, and we resent the unadulterated Word of God being exposited, we demonstrate that we don't really know the God that we worship. When we accept teachings of the false prosperity message as fact, even when Scripture does not accurately support it, that clearly shows a definite lack of understanding. When we accept worldly postmodern philosophy and heresy which denies the gospel and refuses the authority of Scripture as doctrine, and we blend that into evangelical Christianity, and we call it an emerging church, it not only shows a lack of understanding, but it's a dangerous heresy. That's not worship, it's a tragedy.
What seems even worse to me is that while many in modern-day Christendom acknowledge and even lament all of these enormous fallacies as being problematic, so many of our Christian so-called leaders in our day seem to take a lackadaisical almost fatalistic response to the problem.
The response I hear most often, even among those who agree that this is a problem will be, "Well, we are in the last days, and this is what's supposed to happen in the last days." Yes, I agree that we are in the last days. Yes, I know that evil men and imposters will get worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13). Yes, I know that we are in a time when people do not accept sound doctrine. We are definitely in the season where people are gathering up teachers for themselves that only tell them exactly what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:1-4), but we are told to hold fast, Preach the word, to be ready in season and out of season. We are told to convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. We are told to be watchful in all things, to endure afflictions, to do the work of an evangelist, to fulfill our ministry (2 Timothy 4:2-5). We are expressly told to earnestly contend for that faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). So where is it written that because we are in the last days and difficult times are prophesied, that we who call ourselves the Lord's servants, should roll over and play dead? Where is it written that we should coexist with wickedness and even call heresy Christian in the name of grace and tolerance? Where is that written?
e. "For salvation is from the Jews..."
In one sense the modern attitude is not surprising. We have a history of forgetting that our salvation truly is from the Jews. For almost 1700 years, the organized church establishment has systematically trained people to either discount or totally reject 59% of Holy Scripture. This is a practice that continues to this day, because that is what you do when you treat the Old Testament as obsolete. In reality though, to discount or reject the instructions of the so-called Old Testament means that you also have to reject almost 5% of the New Testament as well. So altogether, when one rejects or diminishes the instructions of the Old Testament they are actually rejecting almost 2/3 of Scripture altogether. And still we have the nerve to wonder why we do not seem as thoroughly equipped for every good work as the saints once were.
When we actively bring forth the very same names, practices, and feast days and traditions that were used to worship pagan sex gods for centuries, (which are really demons; 1 Corinthians 10:20-21; 1 Timothy 4:1) but still we eagerly enfold and embrace them into Christian faith and practice, and we call it worship unto Almighty God and Jesus Christ, and we do it in direct rebellion to God's commandments, then it's obvious we are demonstrating that we are worshiping what we do not know.
What blows my mind is that the Christian establishment will lament how many pastors and ministers are ensnared in sexual sin (some estimates place the number of pastors addicted to pornography at almost 40%). We will hear from the various pulpits how shameful it is that 66% of Christian marriages end in divorce. Is it any wonder? If we actively invite and embrace sex demons into the church every winter and spring, (in direct violation to God's commandments I might add), then how can we rightly hope to overcome them through the summer and fall?
Beloved, even the Samaritans in Christ's day would not have accepted the practices we tolerate as a common part of worship, and yet Christ said that they were worshiping what they did not know. How much more ignorant would Jesus consider the modern Christian? I shudder to think of it.
We have clearly demonstrated over and over again that we are worshiping what we do not know, just as the Samaritans were doing in Christ's day. Let those who have ears to hear take heed of what the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures say. Let those who are wise and discerning, grow in understanding. Far be it from us a Lord that we should choose to remain ignorant for the sake of our own pleasure, comforts, and traditions.
"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Since God is looking and seeking for people who worship him in spirit and truth, it stands to reason that we should first understand what that means.
To worship God in spirit: To worship God in spirit obviously means that our spirit (since the word spirit in the verse is not capitalized), it is not referring necessarily to the Holy Spirit, but to human spirit, must be correctly aligned with God. That means that we cannot be worshiping false gods nor should we be worshiping the True God in such a way that dishonors Him. We spent multiple blog entries that idea and giving the Scriptures behind it, so there's no point in reiterating it now. Suffice it to say that in order for worship to be acceptable it has to be completely agreeable to Almighty God, to the Messiah and to the the Holy Spirit. It cannot invite or embrace anything that would be offensive to the Almighty at all.
To worship God in truth: The second criteria that Messiah gave to describe the kinds of worshipers that the Almighty was seeking to worship Him were those who worship God both in spirit, but also in truth. So what does it mean to worship God in truth? I believe that is a vital question. If you look at the word in the original biblical language the New Testament Greek word used is; alētheia [1] meaning; that which is in accord with what really happens, facts that correspond to a reality, whether historical (in the time/space continuum, or to be accurate in the realm that moves beyond time and space So, in order to be true worship it must be accurate to what is happening both in this realm of our present reality and also in the realm of the next.
Now there can be no reasonable doubt in any person's mind that there is no place where God is worshiped more purely than in the Kingdom of Heaven. We know for certain that God is worshiped most purely and accurately in that realm. To worship God in truth means that we would worship God in a way that agrees with what is truly happening both in this realm and in the next. So imagine for example that we were in the presence of the most Holy Almighty God. Imagine for instance that you are all of once fully aware of His perfection, His perfect love, and also His capacity for justifiable wrath over wickedness.
Please, use your sanctified imagination for a moment. What do you think would happen in Glory if a person approached God with the name of a demon sex goddess on his lips and he then heralded her name in a praiseworthy manner right along with the name of God's Son Jesus Christ? What if the 'worshiper' insisted that even though he was using the name of this demon sex goddess, it was really okay, because he was really trying to honor Jesus Christ, the risen Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Can you sincerely tell me beyond a reasonable doubt based on the Scriptures that such a practice would be acceptable in the courts of Glory?! A snowball would have greater chance of surviving a Mojave desert summer, than for such a behavior to be accepted in God's kingdom, and you know it. We know that in God's Kingdom, even the wedding guests who refuse to wear the robes that the bridegroom provides will be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 22:11-13). So, what do you imagine he would do to the 'worshiper' in our example? Is there any biblical basis to believe that his behavior would pass, while the improperly dressed men is howling in agony? Think about it.
Even in modern English the definitions and synonyms for the word truth is very telling. It is very close to the word used in the original biblical language. Here are the synonyms for truth even in our modern-day language according to Encarta Encyclopedia: Synonyms: fact, certainty, reality, actuality, veracity, verity; reality, fact, accuracy, genuineness, precision, exactness, legitimacy, veracity, truthfulness; honesty, candor, integrity, dedication, loyalty, devotion, fidelity, uprightness, sincerity.
Please, to Not continue to use the name and traditions for worshiping the Babylonian goddess of fertility (Easter) to honor the resurrection of Messiah. That's Roman Catholic tradition of men. It's not worshiping God in spirit and truth. What's more, it's expressly forbidden (Jeremiah 10:1-2; Deuteronomy 12:28-32; 1 Corinthians 10:15-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; Mark 7:9-13).
As we seek to remember and commemorate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, let us care enough to remember to pursue worship the way He says that He wishes to be honored and remembered. Remember, words mean things. It is not honorable worship to God unless He specifically agrees that He is honored by something. God be with you. 
Do you really want to set aside the expressly written Commandments of God in order to uphold the tradition of men? Is that excellence in Christian discipleship?
Michel Lankford |
[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Reviewing Fundamentals: Bible Study & Worship
By Brother Michel Lankford
1. Ask God to send the Holy Spirit to help you learn His Word and obey it successfully.
2. Read the whole chapter through before you start studying. It is tempting to skip this step if you are a more seasoned Bible student, because we tend to want to get to where were going as fast as we can, but I don't recommend skipping this step because the Holy Spirit might want to speak to us and show us things we have not seen before, so we should still read the chapter before focusing in on our key passage. It also helps to ensure that you are less likely to take the passage out of context.
3. Focus on God first. Before you get into the details of your study, remember to focus on God first. What I mean is when you are reading a Bible chapter, look for those things that identify God and Jesus Christ before anything else. Look for the verses and words that describe who He is, what He desires and what He requires, before looking for other details.
For example, we know that in Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23-24 are your key verses in the entire chapter, because those specific verses give us specific details about things in which God says He delights, and becoming a person of character in whom God delights is the whole point of studying Scripture:
"Thus says the LORD: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the LORD." Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NRSV)
For another example, we know that in Micah chapter 6, verse 8 is your key verse because it describes what God requires:
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (NRSV)
4. As we have mentioned before, the next step is to find the commands, promises, and guiding principles. If you look for and apply all of these things, then your Bible study will be far more fruitful.
In today's blog we will continue looking at various aspects of worship that God does except and bless.
Remember What Is Worship: Biblically speaking, worship literally means "to bend or prostrate oneself toward." In the English language it comes from the words worth-ship. So in the most literal sense, whatever we give or attribute the most value, importance or worth to, and whatever we obey most closely, that is what we truly worship. That's because of course whatever we obey most closely is what we consider most important or what we most truly value. Just to give one example, if I follow my own opinions or the opinions of my friends more closely than I follow the word of God, then in reality I'm really worshiping myself or my friends instead of God in that particular area of my life. That's because I would be caring more about what they said, or caring more about what I wanted then what God said.
Remember what is Idolatry: Idolatry is the worship of; (the bending or prostrating oneself toward in order to obey); any person, supernatural entity, place, thing, philosophy or ideology which is NOT in fact the Almighty God described in the Scriptures; Who is perfect Love (1 John 4:8), and Who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1-31). The One True God created us (Psalm 100:3), and revealed Himself to Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the prophets, and the apostles, among others. By definition, anyone who believes and follows the Almighty God as He is revealed in the Scriptures is called a God worshiper. Anyone who does not worship the Almighty God as He is revealed in the Testament (Genesis-Revelation), is in fact an idolater, (one who practices and commits idolatry, or the worship of false gods). It must be noted that all idolatry, in all its forms and functions is expressly forbidden by Almighty God throughout the entire Testament of the Scriptures. In fact, Scripture clearly points out that all those who follow and worship false gods, are in reality following demons (1 Corinthians 10:14-23), which are fallen Angels who seek to steal the worship that rightly belongs to Almighty God.
Throughout the entire Testament of Scripture, people are directed to repent; to turn away from any worship of false gods and to learn how to worship the One, Only True, Almighty Creator God, as He deserves and desires to be worshiped. Those who do this will be forgiven and accepted by God (Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 15; Ezekiel 18:19-23; John 4:24).
It must also be noted that while God's mercy and forgiveness are incredibly lavish upon all those who repent, who turn away from what God says is evil, and who turn to do what is good; the penalty is equally lavish for those who refuse to turn away from idolatry. Those who choose to retain idolatry, who choose to continue worshiping false gods (which are really demons pretending to be gods), such idolaters will in fact go to hell (where all demons and up cf. Matthew 25:36-44). They will be in torment and agony without mercy forever (1 Corinthians 5:11, 6:9; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15). Therefore, any person who would be a successful God follower must be diligent to get rid of all forms of idolatry with extremely forceful prejudice. Nothing short of your eternal life hangs in the balance.
Remember That God Does Not Automatically Accept All Worship Offered in His Name: Even the worship of Almighty God must be done correctly and in a manner that God approves. In other words, not all worship of Almighty God is automatically approved by Almighty God, simply because we offered it to Him, instead of offering it to a demon pretending to be god. On the March 31, 2011 entry of this blog, we gave no less than eight concrete Scriptural examples of worship that was offered to the real God, but it was not accepted, because it was not done as God required.
Remember to Avoid Syncretism: One such example of the types of worship that is offered to God, but that is not done in a manner in which God approves is called syncretism. Some people incorrectly believe that just as long as we don't carve out a statue, as long as we don't call it a god, as long as we don't light candles to the statue, as long as we don't bow down toward or pray to a statue that we carve, then we are not committing idolatry. While it is true that all these things described are overt forms of idolatry, there are also subversive forms and practices of idolatry which we are instructed to avoid throughout the entire Testament of Scripture. In the blog entry dated April 3, 2011, we gave a detailed explanation of syncretism, and why God forbids it. To summarize and review: Syncretism is the blending, the mixing and the combining of idolatrous beliefs, ideologies, mythologies and practices of various religions and combining or homogenizing them together into a new faith and practice in order to try to worship the real God. Let's say for example that I took various aspects of Biblical Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Islam, I mixed it all together and tried to bring it into my philosophy and worship of Almighty God and His Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. That would be syncretism.
It is critical to remember that both in the Hebrew and Christian fulfillment Scriptures, the practice of syncretism is completely forbidden.
Remember that all Scripture is anointed by the Holy Spirit of God. It tells us how God wants us to live. It tells us what God will accept and what he will not accept (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Remember that all the Scriptures God caused to be written in the past were written for our instruction, (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11), this would include what is commonly called the Old Testament. The Messiah said the same thing (Matthew 5:17-20). So if we do not follow the instructions and principles that God gave us throughout the entire Testament of Scripture, then we are in fact being disobedient and it is not acceptable worship. It's that simple.
So in what places and examples does God demonstrate to us in Scripture that He does not want or accept syncretism?
· Israel had been in captivity in Egypt for more than 400 years. When God delivered them from their captivity and brought them safely out, they adapted Egyptian cow worship into their worship of Almighty God. They created a golden calf. They gave it Almighty God's name. Basically they were saying that worshiping the golden calf which they created was the same as worshiping the real God as long as they gave it Almighty God's name, and as long as they gave it credit for what Almighty God did. Then they created a feast and celebration of their own design and called it a feast and a celebration unto YHWH, Almighty God. It's critical to note God's reaction here. Almighty God, who revealed Himself to Moses, was most definitely not honored or pleased with that practice. He did not accept it as honorable worship of Him, even though they did put His Name on it. In fact Almighty God was so completely incensed and angry that He was actually prepared to destroy the entire population of Israel and start over with Moses. Moses acted as a type and shadow of the coming Messiah and intervened, so God minimized the punishment on the people because of Moses' intercession (Exodus 32:1-18).
· When God's people were about ready to enter the land which God had promised to their forefather Abraham, Almighty God restated His laws and principles to the people. Within this retelling of the Law, Almighty God gave instructions so that the people could avoid repeating the horrible sins of idolatry that they had committed in the wilderness. His specific instructions were included in Deuteronomy chapter 12. It is worth noting that during his ministry, Jesus Christ the Messiah quoted out of Deuteronomy more than any other portion of Scripture. Here God gives another example that the way to avoid falling into idolatry is to avoid applying the principles of syncretism altogether.
o First, as long as God's people are living where God placed them they are to utterly destroy and obliterate anything and everything that was used in the worship of false gods (Deuteronomy 12:1-4). They were to make sure that even the name of those false gods were never brought to memory again
o They were to make sure that they never copied any of the ideologies, philosophies or behaviors toward Almighty God which the pagans did before their gods (Deuteronomy 12:4, 13).
o Some people believed that as long as they are thinking and meditating about God and Jesus Christ that they can use pagan practices and bring it into the worship of God and Jesus Christ because they are not meditating on ungodly things while they are offering their worship. God's word rejects that assertion (Deuteronomy 12:8, 30-32).
o God restates and summarizes the whole principle again in Deuteronomy 12:28-32.
· God restates the same principle again through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 10:1-2).
· One of the common misconceptions in modern-day Christendom is that God only rejected syncretism in the Old Testament. In truth, the same principle is restated in the so-called New Testament:
o Jesus said that we were not to imitate the way that idolaters or pagans pray. We were not to implement their methods and practices of praying into our prayer life with Almighty God (Matthew 6:7-8).
o Jesus said that we are not to focus on and worry about things or think about things in a manner that pagans and idolaters think and worry (Matthew 6:31-33; cf. Romans 12:1-2).
· Was the same principle restated again by the apostles who witnessed the resurrected Messiah? Yes it was.
o For example, many of the apostolic letters were written with warnings to the churches not to implement the pagan and worldly philosophies of Gnosticism into the worship of Almighty God and Jesus Christ, because combining Gnostic beliefs with their worship of God and Jesus Christ would eventually cause believers to deny the truth of God's word and the gospel. Colossians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and 1st John were all written with the expressed purpose of refuting Gnosticism or other pagan philosophies, and exhorting believers to instead maintain true faith and allegiance to Almighty God and Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
o In 1 Corinthians 10:1-22, the apostle Paul clearly restates the principle discussed in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. He even repeats some of the exact language used. Clearly he was saying God followers are not to implement any ungodly practices into our worship of Almighty God, primarily because it could confuse the unbeliever and prevent him from turning away and being saved from his idolatry. So out of concern for unbelievers we should make extra effort to separate ourselves and all Christian worship from any manner of idolatry so that the unbelievers can see a clear difference (1 Corinthians 10:14, 21-22).
o In 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, the apostle Paul restates the exact same principle of avoiding syncretism, only he does so even more clearly than he did in the first instance.
o In 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, the apostle Paul overtly states that we must scrutinize and test everything, (in effect carefully compare everything with Scripture). We are to hold fast to that which Scripture says is good, and to strictly abstain from that which Scripture says is evil. The apostle Paul goes one step further. Believers are not only to abstain from those things which are overtly evil, but true God followers and worshipers are to also abstain even from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Now that's an interesting distinction which Christians often neglect in our modern day. In Biblical terms, it is not enough merely to avoid the actual substance of all evil and wickedness. This we should certainly do, but Scripture also tells us to avoid and abstain from even the forms of evil.
o Even the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, makes a veiled reference to avoiding syncretism. Now this particular reference is not as blatant of an example is all the others in Scripture, but if you do some digging you will discover that it is there. Remember in the book of Revelation Jesus Christ told John to write a letter to the church at Ephesus? He said that one of the things that search had in its favor was that they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus declared that He also hated. Now, if Jesus said that they were doing certain deeds which he hated, those are definitely needs and actions we want to avoid. It takes a little digging, but through various commentaries and encyclopedias I discovered that among other things the deeds of the Nicolaitans included compromising the faith by incorporating ungodly worship practices and combining it with the worship of Almighty God and Jesus Christ. We know for example that at least the sins committed by these people included eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. It was equated to the sin described in Numbers 2:1-2 which was worship of Balaam (the worship of various Sun god in the region, while trying to worship God at the same time (Harper's Bible dictionary).
The point is that from Exodus to Revelation, God makes it incredibly clear that we cannot incorporate any of the practices, methods, and festivals used that were routinely used to worship pagan gods and bring them into the worship of Yahweh, or the Messiah Jesus Christ. From the beginning to the end of the Whole Testament God emphatically abhors every such practice.
In the next blog, we will discuss what it means to worship God in spirit and truth. Hope to see you there. God be with you.
Brother Michel
Bible Study Techniques Review
For seasoned students of the Scriptures, this may seem like elementary school, but I was reminded of an important Bible study tip which is worth reviewing. Sometimes the Bible can seem overwhelming. You look At a chapter with more than 50 verses. It can feel daunting to some students who might not be sure on what they should focus. You love God's word, you want to respect it. You want to obey it successfully but how can you be sure that you don't miss the key points. Here are the must-do's::1. Ask God to send the Holy Spirit to help you learn His Word and obey it successfully.
2. Read the whole chapter through before you start studying. It is tempting to skip this step if you are a more seasoned Bible student, because we tend to want to get to where were going as fast as we can, but I don't recommend skipping this step because the Holy Spirit might want to speak to us and show us things we have not seen before, so we should still read the chapter before focusing in on our key passage. It also helps to ensure that you are less likely to take the passage out of context.
3. Focus on God first. Before you get into the details of your study, remember to focus on God first. What I mean is when you are reading a Bible chapter, look for those things that identify God and Jesus Christ before anything else. Look for the verses and words that describe who He is, what He desires and what He requires, before looking for other details.
For example, we know that in Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23-24 are your key verses in the entire chapter, because those specific verses give us specific details about things in which God says He delights, and becoming a person of character in whom God delights is the whole point of studying Scripture:
"Thus says the LORD: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the LORD." Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NRSV)
For another example, we know that in Micah chapter 6, verse 8 is your key verse because it describes what God requires:
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (NRSV)
4. As we have mentioned before, the next step is to find the commands, promises, and guiding principles. If you look for and apply all of these things, then your Bible study will be far more fruitful.
In today's blog we will continue looking at various aspects of worship that God does except and bless.
A Review of the Key Principles of Biblical Worship
Remember What Is Worship: Biblically speaking, worship literally means "to bend or prostrate oneself toward." In the English language it comes from the words worth-ship. So in the most literal sense, whatever we give or attribute the most value, importance or worth to, and whatever we obey most closely, that is what we truly worship. That's because of course whatever we obey most closely is what we consider most important or what we most truly value. Just to give one example, if I follow my own opinions or the opinions of my friends more closely than I follow the word of God, then in reality I'm really worshiping myself or my friends instead of God in that particular area of my life. That's because I would be caring more about what they said, or caring more about what I wanted then what God said.
Remember what is Idolatry: Idolatry is the worship of; (the bending or prostrating oneself toward in order to obey); any person, supernatural entity, place, thing, philosophy or ideology which is NOT in fact the Almighty God described in the Scriptures; Who is perfect Love (1 John 4:8), and Who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1-31). The One True God created us (Psalm 100:3), and revealed Himself to Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the prophets, and the apostles, among others. By definition, anyone who believes and follows the Almighty God as He is revealed in the Scriptures is called a God worshiper. Anyone who does not worship the Almighty God as He is revealed in the Testament (Genesis-Revelation), is in fact an idolater, (one who practices and commits idolatry, or the worship of false gods). It must be noted that all idolatry, in all its forms and functions is expressly forbidden by Almighty God throughout the entire Testament of the Scriptures. In fact, Scripture clearly points out that all those who follow and worship false gods, are in reality following demons (1 Corinthians 10:14-23), which are fallen Angels who seek to steal the worship that rightly belongs to Almighty God.
Throughout the entire Testament of Scripture, people are directed to repent; to turn away from any worship of false gods and to learn how to worship the One, Only True, Almighty Creator God, as He deserves and desires to be worshiped. Those who do this will be forgiven and accepted by God (Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 15; Ezekiel 18:19-23; John 4:24).
It must also be noted that while God's mercy and forgiveness are incredibly lavish upon all those who repent, who turn away from what God says is evil, and who turn to do what is good; the penalty is equally lavish for those who refuse to turn away from idolatry. Those who choose to retain idolatry, who choose to continue worshiping false gods (which are really demons pretending to be gods), such idolaters will in fact go to hell (where all demons and up cf. Matthew 25:36-44). They will be in torment and agony without mercy forever (1 Corinthians 5:11, 6:9; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15). Therefore, any person who would be a successful God follower must be diligent to get rid of all forms of idolatry with extremely forceful prejudice. Nothing short of your eternal life hangs in the balance.
Remember That God Does Not Automatically Accept All Worship Offered in His Name: Even the worship of Almighty God must be done correctly and in a manner that God approves. In other words, not all worship of Almighty God is automatically approved by Almighty God, simply because we offered it to Him, instead of offering it to a demon pretending to be god. On the March 31, 2011 entry of this blog, we gave no less than eight concrete Scriptural examples of worship that was offered to the real God, but it was not accepted, because it was not done as God required.
Remember to Avoid Syncretism: One such example of the types of worship that is offered to God, but that is not done in a manner in which God approves is called syncretism. Some people incorrectly believe that just as long as we don't carve out a statue, as long as we don't call it a god, as long as we don't light candles to the statue, as long as we don't bow down toward or pray to a statue that we carve, then we are not committing idolatry. While it is true that all these things described are overt forms of idolatry, there are also subversive forms and practices of idolatry which we are instructed to avoid throughout the entire Testament of Scripture. In the blog entry dated April 3, 2011, we gave a detailed explanation of syncretism, and why God forbids it. To summarize and review: Syncretism is the blending, the mixing and the combining of idolatrous beliefs, ideologies, mythologies and practices of various religions and combining or homogenizing them together into a new faith and practice in order to try to worship the real God. Let's say for example that I took various aspects of Biblical Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Islam, I mixed it all together and tried to bring it into my philosophy and worship of Almighty God and His Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. That would be syncretism.
It is critical to remember that both in the Hebrew and Christian fulfillment Scriptures, the practice of syncretism is completely forbidden.
Remember that all Scripture is anointed by the Holy Spirit of God. It tells us how God wants us to live. It tells us what God will accept and what he will not accept (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Remember that all the Scriptures God caused to be written in the past were written for our instruction, (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11), this would include what is commonly called the Old Testament. The Messiah said the same thing (Matthew 5:17-20). So if we do not follow the instructions and principles that God gave us throughout the entire Testament of Scripture, then we are in fact being disobedient and it is not acceptable worship. It's that simple.
So in what places and examples does God demonstrate to us in Scripture that He does not want or accept syncretism?
· Israel had been in captivity in Egypt for more than 400 years. When God delivered them from their captivity and brought them safely out, they adapted Egyptian cow worship into their worship of Almighty God. They created a golden calf. They gave it Almighty God's name. Basically they were saying that worshiping the golden calf which they created was the same as worshiping the real God as long as they gave it Almighty God's name, and as long as they gave it credit for what Almighty God did. Then they created a feast and celebration of their own design and called it a feast and a celebration unto YHWH, Almighty God. It's critical to note God's reaction here. Almighty God, who revealed Himself to Moses, was most definitely not honored or pleased with that practice. He did not accept it as honorable worship of Him, even though they did put His Name on it. In fact Almighty God was so completely incensed and angry that He was actually prepared to destroy the entire population of Israel and start over with Moses. Moses acted as a type and shadow of the coming Messiah and intervened, so God minimized the punishment on the people because of Moses' intercession (Exodus 32:1-18).
· When God's people were about ready to enter the land which God had promised to their forefather Abraham, Almighty God restated His laws and principles to the people. Within this retelling of the Law, Almighty God gave instructions so that the people could avoid repeating the horrible sins of idolatry that they had committed in the wilderness. His specific instructions were included in Deuteronomy chapter 12. It is worth noting that during his ministry, Jesus Christ the Messiah quoted out of Deuteronomy more than any other portion of Scripture. Here God gives another example that the way to avoid falling into idolatry is to avoid applying the principles of syncretism altogether.
o First, as long as God's people are living where God placed them they are to utterly destroy and obliterate anything and everything that was used in the worship of false gods (Deuteronomy 12:1-4). They were to make sure that even the name of those false gods were never brought to memory again
o They were to make sure that they never copied any of the ideologies, philosophies or behaviors toward Almighty God which the pagans did before their gods (Deuteronomy 12:4, 13).
o Some people believed that as long as they are thinking and meditating about God and Jesus Christ that they can use pagan practices and bring it into the worship of God and Jesus Christ because they are not meditating on ungodly things while they are offering their worship. God's word rejects that assertion (Deuteronomy 12:8, 30-32).
o God restates and summarizes the whole principle again in Deuteronomy 12:28-32.
· God restates the same principle again through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 10:1-2).
· One of the common misconceptions in modern-day Christendom is that God only rejected syncretism in the Old Testament. In truth, the same principle is restated in the so-called New Testament:
o Jesus said that we were not to imitate the way that idolaters or pagans pray. We were not to implement their methods and practices of praying into our prayer life with Almighty God (Matthew 6:7-8).
o Jesus said that we are not to focus on and worry about things or think about things in a manner that pagans and idolaters think and worry (Matthew 6:31-33; cf. Romans 12:1-2).
· Was the same principle restated again by the apostles who witnessed the resurrected Messiah? Yes it was.
o For example, many of the apostolic letters were written with warnings to the churches not to implement the pagan and worldly philosophies of Gnosticism into the worship of Almighty God and Jesus Christ, because combining Gnostic beliefs with their worship of God and Jesus Christ would eventually cause believers to deny the truth of God's word and the gospel. Colossians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and 1st John were all written with the expressed purpose of refuting Gnosticism or other pagan philosophies, and exhorting believers to instead maintain true faith and allegiance to Almighty God and Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
o In 1 Corinthians 10:1-22, the apostle Paul clearly restates the principle discussed in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. He even repeats some of the exact language used. Clearly he was saying God followers are not to implement any ungodly practices into our worship of Almighty God, primarily because it could confuse the unbeliever and prevent him from turning away and being saved from his idolatry. So out of concern for unbelievers we should make extra effort to separate ourselves and all Christian worship from any manner of idolatry so that the unbelievers can see a clear difference (1 Corinthians 10:14, 21-22).
o In 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, the apostle Paul restates the exact same principle of avoiding syncretism, only he does so even more clearly than he did in the first instance.
o In 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, the apostle Paul overtly states that we must scrutinize and test everything, (in effect carefully compare everything with Scripture). We are to hold fast to that which Scripture says is good, and to strictly abstain from that which Scripture says is evil. The apostle Paul goes one step further. Believers are not only to abstain from those things which are overtly evil, but true God followers and worshipers are to also abstain even from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Now that's an interesting distinction which Christians often neglect in our modern day. In Biblical terms, it is not enough merely to avoid the actual substance of all evil and wickedness. This we should certainly do, but Scripture also tells us to avoid and abstain from even the forms of evil.
o Even the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, makes a veiled reference to avoiding syncretism. Now this particular reference is not as blatant of an example is all the others in Scripture, but if you do some digging you will discover that it is there. Remember in the book of Revelation Jesus Christ told John to write a letter to the church at Ephesus? He said that one of the things that search had in its favor was that they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus declared that He also hated. Now, if Jesus said that they were doing certain deeds which he hated, those are definitely needs and actions we want to avoid. It takes a little digging, but through various commentaries and encyclopedias I discovered that among other things the deeds of the Nicolaitans included compromising the faith by incorporating ungodly worship practices and combining it with the worship of Almighty God and Jesus Christ. We know for example that at least the sins committed by these people included eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. It was equated to the sin described in Numbers 2:1-2 which was worship of Balaam (the worship of various Sun god in the region, while trying to worship God at the same time (Harper's Bible dictionary).
The point is that from Exodus to Revelation, God makes it incredibly clear that we cannot incorporate any of the practices, methods, and festivals used that were routinely used to worship pagan gods and bring them into the worship of Yahweh, or the Messiah Jesus Christ. From the beginning to the end of the Whole Testament God emphatically abhors every such practice.
In the next blog, we will discuss what it means to worship God in spirit and truth. Hope to see you there. God be with you.
Brother Michel
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