Blood of the Lamb

Feb

2013

How a Thief Made It to Heaven

“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago–whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows–such a man was caught up to the third heaven.

“And I know how such a man–whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows– was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.” (2Co 12:2-4)

Journal,

The Corinthian Church was struggling over the effect of false apostles who were making inroads into their group. These false apostles were arrogant and boastful in their claims of being apostles, while at the same time attempting to convince the Corinthians that Paul of not a true apostle.

It was in the face of these accusations that Paul felt it necessary to remind the Corinthians of his having laid the foundation for the Corinthian Church, of his apostolic journeys and trials and sufferings, and how these false apostles were perverting the gospel message.

Jude, the brother of Jesus, gives an ample description of the false apostles and false teachers:

“These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.” (Jud 1:12-13)

In dealing with these destroyers of the faith, it is also here that the apostle Paul is very careful not to overemphasize the fact of his having been caught up to the third heaven.

However, what makes this so fascinating is that the apostle is sharing some things that we know so little about. Paul had been ‘caught up’ into Paradise, that is, the third heaven, and heard things that he was not even permitted to speak. Yet in this short narrative we can learn a bit more about our heavenly home.

Let me begin with the terms that Paul uses. The first one is a term that applies to the future of all believers.

Paul was Caught Up

Paul is actually using a term that belongs to the doctrine of, ‘the rapture of the church.’ The Greek word for ‘caught up’, is the word, ‘harpazo’. This word is always used but one way in the Scriptures. It is a translocation word. It speaks of a sudden seizing, a catching up, a snatching away, a carrying off, a removing, or to take something by force of power.

Harpazo is used fourteen times in the New Testament and in each case it always speaks of translocation, or movement from one place to another.

Here is how it is used for the church:

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

“Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up [harpazo] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1Th 4:16-18)

The apostle Paul uses the same term ‘harpazo’, to describe his having been caught up into the third heaven, and for what will happen to all believers in their time. We are going to where Paul went.

Where did Paul go. He calls attention to…

The Third Heaven, Paradise

The apostle equates the third heaven with the term Paradise.

To you recall what Jesus said to the thief on the cross? Listen:

“And he [the thief] was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!’

“And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luk 23:42-43)

Did you take note that Jesus said the thief would be with him in Paradise.

Do you know that there are those who wish this story wasn’t in the Bible? Why? The reason is it blows apart most of their religious-minded thinking.

Take note – What credentials did the thief have that would qualify him to be with Jesus in paradise? He was at the least a common thief, and who knows what else.

The thief wasn’t baptized. The thief could not make any restitution. The thief did not go through a list of his sins by way of confession. (Certainly some of this is to be done, but they in themselves do not qualify us for heaven.)

Listen again, very carefully. When the other thief hurled abuses at the Lord Jesus, listen to this thief that spoke to Jesus –

“… [He rebuked the thief who hurled abuses] ‘Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

“‘And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’

“And he was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!'” (Luk 23:40-42)

Know what else this story does? It destroys the argument, ‘I don’t believe in death-bed repentance.’

If we would take more time to study the Scriptures themselves, and less time majoring on our religions, who knows what kind of person we would become. For one thing, we would likely become much more compassionate, more caring, and more loving of those around us.

If the truth be known…

The Only Way to Get to Heaven is the Way of the Thief

I know this sounds strange. But I’m begging you listen carefully to what thief had to say. It will help you understand why his way is the only way.

There are three components involved to make our passage into heaven. The thief had them all. Here is a brief summary:

We must recognize that there is no personal goodness in us that would qualify us for heaven. ‘We are justly under condemnation and are suffering justly. We are receiving what we deserve.’
We must realize fully that Jesus alone can save us, atone for our sins, and no other. Jesus was the perfect, without sin, sacrifice. ‘This man has done nothing wrong.’
We must believe in the Lordship of Jesus, and appeal to Him personally. ‘Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom.’

It Helps to Remember Where We Came From

I realize that when we become born again, we are no long considered to be sinners. The Bible actually sets forth that we are now saints. The word ‘saint’ means a holy one, that is, a person that belongs to God. This simply means that we are no longer judged as sinners.

But to think back on where we came from is good. The apostle Paul did this.

Listen –

“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

“And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1Ti 1:12-15)

Why not take time for this song. It pretty much agrees with that the apostle had to say.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzlDvfeWp3s[/youtube]

In Christ always,

Buddy

Feb

2012

For the Love of Jesus Christ

“When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

“And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.'”

(Rev 5:8-9)

Journal.

How does a person truly know that they are saved? That really isn’t a difficult question to answer. To know Jesus personally is to love Him personally.

This love for Jesus carries its own witness in the heart of every believer. And it is this love for Jesus that becomes the major guidepost in the life of all who belong to Him.

For all true believers, a love for Jesus and faith in Jesus are inseparable. They are very much the same.

Peter puts a face on how the love of Jesus and faith in Jesus are connected —

“…so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable … though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” 1Pe 1:7,8

A Love that is Divine

It is important to understand what distinguishes a believer’s love for Jesus from all other religions in general. Actually it is this love for Jesus that differentiates Biblical Christianity from Orthodox Judaism, from the Isl?mic faith, and from every other religion to be found on planet earth.

A believer’s love for Jesus is the same love that the heavenly Father has for His Son. It is this divine love that encompasses all that salvation in Christ means.

Thus we have the statement, “God is love.” It is this special divine love found only in God, that is poured out into the heart of the true believer. It is this ‘unworldly‘ love that enables the believer to love the way God loves. And so it is this unique love that causes the true Christian to be unlike other people.

In fact the Lord gave one distinguishing sign that would cause people to know that a person belonged to Him. It would be the love sign.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even AS I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Joh 13:34-35)

What many don’t realize is that the love Jesus is speaking of is a love that is only be found in God Himself. The love Jesus is talking about was not a love to be found in the natural human family before He came into our world. This is why it is so important to understand how God’s love fits into His work of redemption.

Notice how the apostle John uses the term ‘love‘ in his writings. Also note how the apostle identifies this love as a love that is to be found only in God. Thus it is this love in the heart of a believer that gives evidence that a person has truly been born of heaven.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1Jn 4:7-11)

The afore Scriptures are self-explaining.

The point being that all true Christians have come to know Jesus Christ personally as the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the One who died for our sins, was buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven; the One of whose eternal blood has been sprinkled on our hearts, and of whom we anxiously await His second coming; the One who is the center of our joy and rejoicing.

It is our love for Jesus and our unique love for one another that sets Christianity apart from all other forms of religion.

This brings me to how Jesus fits into the religions of Islam and of Judaism. I will only address the basic elements of Judaism, as are found in their holy writings, the Talmuds, and the basic elements of Islam, which are found in their holy writings, the Qur’an.

Jesus in Islam…

The teachings about Jesus in Islam are far less pervasive that what you find in Judaism. In Islam, Jesus is given special respect as one of the five great messengers (prophets) of God.

Islam regard Adam as the first prophet and Muhammad as the last prophet. Muhammed’s title is called, ‘Seal of the Prophets.’ The five great prophets (messengers of God), are Noah, Abraham, Noses, Jesus, and Muhammed. None of these are divine.

Islam regards Adam as the first prophet and Muhammad as the last prophet. Muhammad’s title is called, ‘Seal of the Prophets.’ The five great prophets (messengers of God), are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. None of these are divine.

In Islam, Jesus is called the son of the Virgin. However, He is not divine, nor is Jesus accounted as the Son of God; He was not crucified, nor does He have anything to do with the salvation of humanity. The strange one is that while Jesus is considered to be the Messiah, He is not Messiah in the sense as is found in the gospels. Jesus comes in second to Muhammad.

Muslims are taught that when Jesus does return, He will convert the world to Islam.

The point at hand is that while Muslims would never slander Jesus, yet their true knowledge of Him is limited. The people have been trapped in religion of darkness, one that uses militancy as its primary weapon, and one that makes Christianity its arch enemies. In some Isl?mic societies it is a death sentence for any Muslim to convert to Christianity.

The good news is that many millions of Muslim are having their eyes opened and are turning to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Their greatest need is to hear the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of the Muslims of the world are turning to Jesus because a New Testament has been placed in their hands.

Jesus in Judaism is an altogether different story …

Again keep in mind that there are many levels of Judaism, just as there are many levels of Islam, as well as many levels of Christianity. Actually there are true believers in Jesus Christ among the Jewish people. But religiously speaking that would be an abnormality.

But here I will drawn on the Talmudic writings of the ancient Rabbinic Judaism. These writings remain the holiest books of Orthodox Judaism.

Most people are not aware of how Jesus is treated in the Talmud. Here is a sample:

“He [Onqelos] sent and brought up Jesus the Nazarene (Yeshu ha-notzri) out of his grave by necreomancy and asked him: ‘Who is important in that world?’

Jesus answered, ‘Israel.’

Onqelos: ‘What then about joining them?’

Jesus: ‘Seek their welface, seek not their harm. Whoever touches them is as though he touches the apple of God’s eye!’

Onqelos: ‘What is your punishment?’

Jesus: ‘With boiling excrement.’

There is much more to be said, but this gives the idea. Mary is treated as a whore, and Jesus as the son of a Roman soldier. There are a number of code words for Jesus in the Talmudic writings. None of them very pleasant.

What is the plus side in all this? The plus side is similar to what is happening in Islam. Many Jews are discovering Jesus for who He really is. However, there is a last stage to be reached in Judaism. It began in Jerusalem, it has to end in Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s warfare is not ended.

Jesus said:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'” (Mat 23:37-39)

Again from the prophet Zechariah:

“And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”

The great question of all generations remains...

Will the Father say to all people,

What have you done with My Son?

Did you treat Him as holy?

Did you trample Him underfoot as nothing of worth?

These questions are eternal salvation questions.

Think about it as you listen to the words of this song – ‘Like a Rose Trampled on the Ground’

May the Lord richly bless you in a discovery of all His will for your life.

In Christ,

Buddy

Jan

2012

2011 in Review – When the Temple Shuddered

Friends,

Here is an overview of my on-line journal for 2011.

My journal brought in 25,008 visitors along with 71,325 page views. Most of my viewers were from the United States, with the United Kingdom, Canada, Philippines, India, and Australia not far behind.

Here are three of my popular posts (To view each entry, click on the blue web address) –

God’s Wings and the Blue Thread of Heaven http://buddymartin.net/blog/2011/09/gods-wings-and-the-blue-thread-of-heaven/

Jesus, the Wonder and Mystery of the Bible http://buddymartin.net/blog/2009/11/jesus-the-wonder-and-mystery-of-the-bible/

Beware of Spiritual Counterfeits http://buddymartin.net/blog/2011/11/beware-of-spiritual-counterfeits/

The busiest day of the year was May 18th, with the entry entitled, ‘When the Temple Shuttered.’ For you who have not had the opportunity to view that entry, here it is in its entirety ……..

When The Temple Shuddered

“And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mar 15:37-39)

Journal,

When Jesus breathed His last, the veil of the temple was torn. There was also an earthquake, and according to some sources, the foundation of the temple shifted. In this entry I wish to concentrate primarily on the significance of what happened in the temple during the crucifixion of Jesus.

Before the torn curtain, darkness had filled the land from noon to 3 o’clock. The ninth hour (3 pm) was the time of the incense offering. A priest and his attendants would be in the holy place.

The priest would not have heard the voice of Christ on the cross, nor the mockery of the chief priests and scribes, who were chiding Jesus, in saying,

“He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the king of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.” (Mat27:42)

But this moment was the deepest of sorrows for Jesus. And it is here that we hear the saddest words ever to be recorded by a human pen, when Jesus cries out,

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”

At the moment of the cry, what the priest in the temple saw must have left him quaking. Hearing the sound of tearing, and looking up, the priest saw the vast curtain beginning to rend, starting at the very top.

Historical background

Let me share some historical background on both the curtain and the happenings in Israel during the time of Christ. This would explain any nervousness that the priest would have had.

First the curtain – The curtain was awesome in itself. It was 80 feet high, and as thick as the width of a man’s hand. (According to Josephus and later rabbinic authorities.)

Another point of interest is that the curtain had changed in appearance from the original pattern given Moses. The tabernacle curtain had cherubim embroidered in it. But the curtain in Herod’s temple had the heavens themselves embroidered on it. It was like looking at the sky. So when it began to tear, the priest would have thought of the rending of the heavens. And this is truly what was happening.

Strange things happening

There is more. According to the Talmud and Josephus, strange things had happened during that time period. Josephus said that the eastern gate, which was made of brass, and which took twenty men to close, would open and close on its own accord.

The Talmud speaks of something similar. It says that forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple doors would open and close on their own, and you could hear voices coming from within. Forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem was when Jesus took up His Messianic anointing. The Master of the Universe walked the land.

Evidently the temple was becoming a scary place. The priest would have reason to go about his duties with some nervousness. But nonetheless, it happened. He looked up and the vast curtain began to tear. The floor began to shift and shake.

It was as if God were saying, “This is it! No more! There will be no more separation! No more blood sacrifices! No more!!!”

It was as if the temple itself was rending her garments. She shuddered.

What is the wonderful secret in all this? It was all about God and man. God has been reconciled to all of humanity. Thus, every person on this planet, saint or sinner, has the right to call on the name of the Lord, and be saved. Sin was dealt with in Christ. Not simply the sins of the saints. All the sins of the world were taken to the cross in Christ.

When love walked the earth

Through the fall of Adam, the human race came into league with Satan. But that did not mean that God stopped loving humanity. The Bible is a record of redemption. It is also the story of God’s love for humanity.

When Jesus came into the earth, it meant that He had to leave heaven with all its glory and splendor, and to come into a world that was enshrouded in sin.

Sin was our clothing. Did He come in anger? Did He come with vengeance in His heart? No. He came with a heart full of the Father’s love.
And this is why John 3:16,17 will always be the key message in the Bible. It says,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

Jesus had to be born as a human. And so He was. Thus we have the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus was the only human ever to walk this planet in whom Satan had no power or authority over. Satan knew that somehow he must get Jesus to sin. But it never happened. Jesus was perfect in all His ways.

The message of the garden

Oh yes, Satan never forgot the message of the garden —

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (Gen3:15)

Jesus could have went back to heaven any time He desired. But He didn’t. He walked in our sinful world. He put his arms around sinful creatures. He rebuked the religious leaders for their hardheartedness, and gave nothing but love and acceptance to the most sinful of us all. It still works that way today.
But all this wasn’t entirely new. God’s plan of redemption had been laid out by His holy servants of old, the prophets. In fact the Bible unfolds around God’s Son and the work of the cross.

Hear what the prophet David had to say…

When mercy and truth met together

Somehow mercy and truth had to meet together. Somehow righteousness and peace had to kiss one another. Somehow heaven and earth had to be reconciled. Somehow there had to be the ‘one’ sacrifice that would take away sin forever.

And the sacrifice had to be so perfect that it would remove all the sins of all of humanity, for all time. And somehow, this sacrifice had to become the way for man to return to God.
The Psalmist also spoke of this. He said,

“Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. Righteousness will go before Him and will make His footsteps into a way.” (Psa 85:9-13)

Listen to the words —

‘Truth springs from the earth.’ This is Jesus born of a woman.
‘Righteousness looks down from heaven.’ The voice from heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
‘Righteousness … will make His footsteps into a way.‘ The footsteps of Jesus took Him from the cross and to His rightful place in heaven. His footsteps are now our footsteps.

There is so much more to be said.

But then, maybe this song pretty much says it all.

Take time to listen to John Starns, ‘Love Grew Where the Blood Fell.’

In Christ always,
Buddy

Oct

2011

Why Our Goodness Cannot Save Us

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them [Israel] is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.

“For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Rom 10:1-4)

Journal,

I felt it would be good to offer a study on the subject of salvation by setting forth why a person cannot be saved by anything they do in their own efforts. Until this truth is realized, the struggle over salvation will always be there. Let’s talk about it.

It is important to understand that being saved has nothing to do with anything we can offer to God. What can a sinful race offer to a holy God? Everything we touch is imbued with sin. Our unsaved hearts are hearts of sinners. The human race is charged with sin, infected by sin, directed by sin, and corrupted by sin.

What can our sinful hands offer to God that would not be an offering of sin? We can offer God nothing. We are bankrupt of any righteousness.

David asked it best:

“What can I offer the LORD for all He has done for me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the LORD’s name for saving me.” (Psa 116:12-13)

And so…

What Can I Offer the Lord

What can we offer God with a view to salvation? What do we sinful creatures have that would be good enough for God to accept us? Again the answer is, nothing.

We can’t clean ourselves up. It is our heart that is corrupt. There is nothing on our part that we can do to be accepted by God. Until we recognize this basic truth, we will never understand what salvation is all about.

Let’s press this further. Nobody prays through to salvation. Fasting and prayer are not issues of salvation. Having uncut hair does not get God’s attention. Whether you drink or smoke has nothing to do with salvation.

Going to movies or not going to movies is not a thing of salvation. No matter what we may think about these things, they have no relationship to salvation itself. No person ever becomes good enough to get saved.

We cannot change the inside by working on the outside. Salvation is about a heart condition. When the heart is made right, everything else will come into place. (In its time.)

We Are Powerless in Ourselves

So let me repeat — We are powerless in ourselves to think that anything good can come from us. Salvation has to come from God Himself. He alone is righteous and without sin. He alone is good.

Stop and think about what John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the apostles all taught on the issue of salvation. They were addressing a Jewish audience. The Jews hung their hats about being saved on the merits of Abraham.

In dealing with Jewish attitudes, Paul said that the Jews were just as lost as the pagans. Why is that? It is because salvation can only come from God Himself. And the sinful state of Adam had casts its shadow across the whole of humanity.

All unsaved people are under the power and authority of a spiritual being beside God. Satan is actually called the god of this world.

Deadness of Sin

Paul brings out the deadness of sin:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (Eph 2:1-3)

Have we nailed this issue down firm enough? Once again, until a person realizes that they cannot be saved by any effort of their own, they will remain stupefied in how to be saved.

What then is the answer? The answer never changes. Salvation is trusting wholly in Christ and in His Lordship. Reading a bit further in Ephesians 2, we hear Paul say this:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10)

The Battle Over Grace

The argument goes this way,

‘That is too easy. Anyone can say they trust in Christ. Where is their experience? Where is their holiness? Where is their separation from the world? Where is their…where is their…where is their…???’

Do you see the problem with the argument of ‘Where is?’

All these responses continue to miss the message of salvation. What then is the central message of salvation?

Listen:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (Joh 3:16-18)

Salvation is Through the Son Alone

This is My Beloved Son

Did you catch it? Salvation is through the Son alone. The Son took the place of the human race. The Son took to Himself our separation from God. The Son died in our place.

The Son was judged with our judgment. The Son was declared sin so that we could be declared right before God. The Son resurrected from the dead as a sign that judgment had been met.

The Son entered back into heaven. And the Son is now Lord of all. He is above all. He has all authority in heaven and on earth.

So how then are we saved? We are saved by appealing to the Son. This was the message that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost.

“And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [Jesus] will be saved.” (Act 2:21)

This is the message that the great apostle Paul preached to the Gentiles:

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD [Jesus] WILL BE SAVED.’” (Rom 10:12-13)

The Eternal Law of Salvation

Out of the cross came the eternal law of salvation. It is the one law that Satan hopes no person ever sees clearly. This is why he keeps adding religious ritual to religious ritual, condition upon condition, law upon law, tradition upon tradition, and anything else he can throw into the mix.

Satan knows that any person who calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ with their heart in respect to salvation, will be saved. It is as simple as that.

Satan knows it. We need to know it. We need to be able to preach this simple message of faith in Christ to the harlot, to the beggar, to the drunkard, to the sinner of the deepest cut.

There is no other message that Christians are commissioned to preach. Our job is to preach the message. The message will take care of itself.

The Message Completes Itself

Yes, all the apostles preached the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and that faith in Christ as the risen Savior is what salvation truly is. In fact the only witness a person needs to know that they are saved is that they truly believe in their heart that Jesus Christ is their own Lord.

Faith in Jesus Christ itself is the testimony of salvation. This is where many people misunderstand the power of the gospel message.

The message of the cross carries in it the inherent power that accomplishes the work of salvation. The moment a person truly believes, the Holy Spirit enters that person’s heart and places the seal of salvation.

Paul explains in two places the power of the gospel message.

“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word [gospel message] of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1Th 2:13)

And again,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH [In Jesus Christ].’” (Rom 1:16-17)

And so, until we truly believe in Jesus Christ, there can be no seal placed on our heart. The seal carries God’s testimony.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Rom 8:15-17)

Have you received the Spirit of God’s Son in your heart? Listen once again to the witness of salvation.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Rom 8:15-17)

What Can Take Away My Sins

Some time ago I was asked to take part in a prayer breakfast for a Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. When it came time for me to offer a prayer, I begin to sing the song, ‘What can wash away my sins.’ I will never forget how singing that song changed the atmosphere of the gathering from political to spiritual.

Are you ready for your heart to change? Perhaps now would be a good time to listen to it.

Jesus loves you,

Buddy

Jul

2011

Your Future is Already Planned

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph 2:4-10)

Journal,

It is so important to get the message of salvation right. Salvation in Christ is not something we can earn. Nor is our salvation something that we keep by our own personal goodness or performance. Salvation is based on one thing alone. It is based on God’s love. And God’s love displayed on the cross. The finished work of the cross means that our salvation is finished. There is nothing to be added to it. There is nothing that can take away from it. The apostle said,

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Rom 5:6-10)

The Major Fault Line

The major fault-line with any belief system that fails to accord with the finished work of the cross will always result in a life of full of doubt and uncertainty. Rather than living in blessed assurance, a works-righteousness system of belief holds people in the sway of uncertainties. At what point can I really know that I am really saved? It is important to understand that God’s love is eternal and that our salvation can never be based on our ability to do points of goodness. The love of God serves as the basis for all His actions towards us. Our salvation was completed at the cross. This is why the apostle John said,

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1Jn4:10)

Paul adds –

“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit.” (Tit3:5)

The Lord of Always

The point is that the apostles were given a love message to carry into the entire world. This is why the subject of ‘love’ is found so much in their writings. Paul said it best:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom8:38,39)

Let’s give a perspective on Jesus being the Lord of always. How about if you could be in your child’s future, always in the background, yet never diminishing your child’s freedom of choice. You would be there to help in whatever the need may call for. Would you be willing to be there? Well, you can’t do that, but God can. The Lord gave David insight into this awesome area. David said,

“O Lord, You have search me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.” (Psa139)

David said such knowledge was too wonderful for him. But what is it about God’s love that is so incomprehensible? We know that only too well. We have all found that God’s love surrounds us. God’s love reaches into our pits and draws us out. How we’ve been ashamed of a misdeed, wondering how God could ever love us still, and yet, in our turning to Him, we found He was ever there. In fact He had never left us. The prophet Micah spoke to this –

“Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love … You will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham…” (Micah 7:18-20)

Unchanging love is the catch phrase. Jesus expresses God’s eternal love in saying,

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you, abide in My love.” (John 15:9)

Yes, we Christians have such passion over the love of God. After all you don’t hear Muslims singing, ‘Mohammed, lover of my soul.’

The Mystery of Our Tomorrows

Once again we need to take a deeper look at the finished work of the cross. Herein is a great mystery that goes far beyond our ability to understand. God is the God of our yesterdays, of our todays, and of our tomorrows. This means that God is already in our future before we get there. He has made a provision for every situation we may face. God has no limitations on time and space. He sees our entire life before it unfolds in time. He knows every trial, every failure, every disappointment, every temptation, and every bad choice we will ever make.

Does this mean there will be no consequences for all the bad that we may do? It doesn’t mean that at all. Every choice we make will always bring consequences for those choices, whether good or bad. But here is the wonder. God is the God of our tomorrows.

Even in the life that we have not yet lived, the Lord has provided the wherewithal for us to overcome in all that we may have to deal with. Arrangements have already been made for our future.

Stop and think about it — Every trial we will ever walk through, every sorrow we will ever face, and every bad choice we will ever make, God has already made a way to turn all this into His glory.

Think of it this way – The trial you will enter in some distant time, the Lord has already walked you through it. That is because your tomorrows are already present in the Lord. God oversees your entire life and that takes in that part of life that you have yet to experience.

There is nothing in our life that is left to chance. This is included is what Paul had to say –

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:28-32)

How does the story of our salvation end? Do you remember the Scriptures I used in introducing this study? Look at them again.

Paul says that we have already been seated with Christ in the heavenly places. The story has already been written. In God’s story you are already in heaven. Here it is again:

Be encouraged my friend. Jesus really does love you and He is going to help you to see things through to the end. Take time for this song. The Lord wants to speak to your heart.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz4_u509I_g[/youtube]

In Christ Always,

Buddy

Jul

2011

The Top Ten Percent

Readers,

I’ve provided 154 journal entries on my blog with 73,580 page views. Occasionally I share a list of those entries that have rendered the most readership. Here are the top ten percent beginning with the most read and on down. Check the titles for an entry(s) that you would like to preview.

(1) Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2009/11/mercy-triumphs-over-judgment/

(2) Passing Through the Valley of Baca: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2010/01/passing-through-the-valley-of-baca/

(3) Tongues: http://buddymartin.net/blog/speaking-in-other-languages/

(4) Which Bible Translation is the Best: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2010/01/which-bible-translation-is-the-best/

(5) Testimony: http://buddymartin.net/blog/testimony/

(6) Salvation: http://buddymartin.net/blog/salvation/

(7) How Secure Are You in Christ: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2010/03/how-secure-are-you-in-christ/

(8) How Do You Know That You Are Saved: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2010/02/how-do-you-know-that-you-are-saved/

(9) Honoring God With First Fruits: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2009/12/honoring-god-with-first-fruits/

(10) The Secret Place of God: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2009/11/the-secret-place-of-god/

(11) CCI [Christian Challenge International]: http://buddymartin.net/blog/about/

(12) Questions: http://buddymartin.net/blog/ask-the-pastor/

(13) Jesus the Wonder and Mystery of the Bible: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2009/11/jesus-the-wonder-and-mystery-of-the-bible/

(14) The Call of the Eagle’s Heart: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2010/02/the-call-of-the-eagles-heart/

(15) Acts: http://buddymartin.net/blog/acts-studies/

Here is a song for your heart. Take time to listen. God really wants to speak to you.

“I Could Sing of Your Love Forever.”

In Christ always,

Buddy

Jun

2011

Lord Jesus, remember me

– Lord Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. I know that I have broken God’s laws and that my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry. Please forgive me. I do believe that You are the Christ, the Son of the Loving God, that you died for my sins. I believe that you resurrected from the dead, that you are seated in heaven at the Father’s right hand as Lord of all creation, and that you are coming again. I call upon you as Lord of my life. Fill my heart with Your Holy Spirit. From this day forward I will confess you as my Lord and Savior. Amen. –

A prayer of Salvation

Journal,

The thief on the cross did not have time to find a church, to get baptized, to do good works, or undo any of the sins of his life. He was about to die. On the cross between him and another thief was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Here is how it went:

“One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, ‘Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!’ But the other answered, and rebuking him said, ‘Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’

“And he was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!’ And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.’” (Luk 23:39-43)

The reason the thief on the cross would enter paradise is that he was placing his faith in the Man who was hanging on the cross. The thief would enter paradise the same way that all true believers enter paradise. He acknowledged faith and trust in the Lord when he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”

One struggle that often confronts new believers has to do with realizing the life that is given us in the new covenant. I have often shared that when believers try to measure their walk with the Lord by the Old Covenant laws it can actually hinder the flow of grace in their life. The new covenant includes a life cause that had never been known to man.

It all has to do with…

The Life Atonement

In all the former covenants there was no spiritual atonement. All the Old Testament sacrifices could do was serve as reminders of sin and of man’s need of a Savior. The Bible says that these sacrifices could never make the worshipper “perfect in conscience.” (Heb9:9)

In the Old Testament sacrifice the one offering the sacrifice was exchanging his life for the life of the animal. The sacrificed animal was taking the place of the sacrificer. But all the sacrifices under the Law could never take away sin. They served as a reminder and a shadow of the great sacrifice to come. In the Old Testament sacrifices the gospel of Christ was being set forth.

What of the cross? It was on the cross that Christ offered himself as an ‘eternal’ sacrifice for all sin for all time, and through His atoning blood, the believer is given a cleansed conscience. Rather than having a heart that would continually remind the believer of the condemnation of sin, the blood-sprinkled heart would now speak of grace and righteousness.

The moment a person becomes born again, they are made aware of a new life principle at work. The born from heaven believer has a new relationship with God. His conscience has been cleansed. The former things have passed away.

Paul said it this way:

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2Co 5:17-19)

None of this means that a new covenant believer is incapable of sin. What it means is that the new covenant believer’s life has been exchanged for the life of Jesus. The new believer now remains under the influence of the atonement of Christ.

This also means that the heart and soul of a new covenant believer has undergone a nature change. Where sin was his natural state, now sin becomes an unclean thing to this new believer. O yes, he can sin but he can never be comfortable in sin. Sin is now contrary to his new nature.

Another way of saying this is that the new believer now represents Jesus on the earth, and Jesus represents the new believer in heaven. Both the apostle John and the apostle Paul confirms this.

“By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He [Jesus] is, so also are we in this world.“ (1Jn 4:17)

“For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” (Col 3:3-4)

Walking with a Cleansed Conscience

It is one thing to know we are saved by the sacrifice of Christ, it is altogether another to walk with a cleansed conscience. And so the new covenant has a built-in ‘spiritual-cleansing’ or ‘renewing’ factor that will never lose its power for cleansing. The apostles speak of this renewing and cleansing work of the Holy Spirit.

The word that relates to the cleansing and renewing is the word sanctification. When God saves us, we become ‘set apart’ from the world. (This is essentially what ‘sanctify’ means.) Anything that is sanctified means that it belongs exclusively to God. In this sense all believers are ‘God-possessed’ people.

And so we have from God the work of separation, of cleansing and of renewing.

Paul said,

“We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” (2Co4:16)

The term Paul used for ‘renewed’ is anikainoo. It literally means, ‘make new.’ Anikainoo carries the idea of spiritual restorations. Thus it can be said that the believer’s life is being made new day by day. This is the outflow of the life that has been given us in Christ.

Jesus described it this way:

“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (Joh 7:37-39)

Back to the thief on the cross. In the new covenant there is …

No Salvation by Works or Personal Goodness

Just as the thief could be saved only one way, the apostles are careful to point out that we cannot be saved by anything that we could do or have done in our own power. The truth of our being saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone is taught throughout the New Testament. James explains how a person is born from above. He said,

“In this exercise of [God’s] will He brought us forth by the word of truth.” (James 1:18)

It is so important to understand this. You cannot work God’s will in your life. God works His will in your life. This is why even repentance can be said to be God at work in our hearts.

Paul added to this in saying,

“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” (Tit3:5)

Once again Paul is speaking of the new life renewal that the Holy Spirit continues to manifest in each believer.

Always keep in mind what Jesus said to the thief, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.’

Now let us talk about…

Full Fellowship

Again listen, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” We need to know that the Lord always deals with us as blood redeemed people. When we make mistakes, or fall into a temptation, or stumble, or whatever the case may be, the Lord is able to restore us in full fellowship through the atoning blood of Jesus. The Bible says that nothing shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus.

We drink from His cup. We sit at His table. We will always be with Jesus in heaven. The believer’s life cannot be separated from Jesus’s life.

In Hebrews, we hear,

“He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb7:25)

But it is more to this than restoration from sin. It is the very life of the new covenant that we need to learn about. Paul gave the finishing touch on how new covenant life works in a single statement. He said,

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal2:20)

Crucified with Christ

Yes, the thief was crucified with Christ. And the thief would forever live with Christ. When Christ arose from the grave, the thief arose with Him. When Jesus entered into heaven the thief entered with Him. When Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father, the thief was seated with Him. And so was every believer in the new covenant.

When Paul said that he had been crucified with Christ, he is addressing a cardinal reality of the Christian faith. Listen to the apostle:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:4-7)

Where does all this leave us? It really depends on your standing with heaven. If you are not assured of your salvation, I provided a prayer at the beginning of this journal entry that you may want to use. It begins with the simple words of the thief on the cross and it includes those things that speak of the Lordship of Jesus.

Don’t place your salvation in some church membership, or on some emotional experience, on shaking the preacher’s hand, or how long you prayed at an altar. Salvation is based on one issue alone – Salvation is the change of Lordship. You are turning from the god of this world [Satan] and calling on the name of God’s beloved Son. The Bible plainly says that whoever will call on His name will be saved.

Why not take time for this song. It is titled, ‘Lord, Please Remember Me,’ by the Jackson Southernaires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYF-2Y9-ogo

Be blessed,

Buddy

Dec

2010

A Kingdom of the Heart

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

Titus Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian who lived from 37 A.D. to about 100 A.D. He lived during the time of the apostles. Josephus was a member of the priestly aristocracy of the Jews, and was taken hostage by the Roman Empire in the great Jewish revolt of 66-70 A.D. His Hebrew name was Yoseph Ben Mattithyahu. Josephus recorded some of the earliest history of Jesus Christ.

While there are those who like to besmirch Josephus and attempt to discount whatever he had to say about Jesus Christ, the fact remains that he is one of the early historians that calls attention not only to Jesus, but also to James the brother of Jesus, and to John the Baptist. Many of the earliest Christians held his writings in high esteem. They saw Josephus writings as ‘a kind of fifth gospel’ because of his regard to Jesus Christ.

While the Jews totally disregarded the writings of Josephus since they saw him as a traitor, the church’s love for him has kept his writings forthcoming for the later generations of believers. There is no question that Josephus was acquainted with the Christian movement. He had to have been aware of Jesus since so many of the people including a great many priests had become obedient to the Christian faith.

This is how the spread of the gospel is recorded in Acts —

“The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.” (Act 6:7)

Journal,

As a young minister I began my meager minister’s library with a handful of books. (Hard to realize its been forty-six years since I took up my call to the Lord’s ministry; 1964.) My ‘meager’ library consisted of four books, a Holman’s King James Bible, a Halley’s Bible Hand Book, a Matthew Henry’s Commentary, and one other book. The one other book was titled, ‘The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus.’

Three of my original four books have long since been replaced. Can you believe that I still have my original copy of, ‘The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus’. That old tattered book sits on my library shelf like an old friend. Every time I think about ‘Josephus‘ I have this nudge to take it up and begin reading it again. Somewhere I became distracted with other studies and never finished reading the entire book. (OK, I get the message. Josephus is at the top of my list.)

One of the things that has always lingered in my mind about Josephus was a statement he made about Christians. He wrote, “And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

I’ve often wondered why Josephus spoke of the early Christians as a tribe? Keep in mind that the earliest believers where Jewish and the language of ‘tribes’ was deeply instilled in them. For example when the apostle Paul compared his former Hebrew lineage to his new life as a Christian, he said…

“… for we [Christians] are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee…” (Php 3:3-5)

Paul spoke of his former life as being of the tribe of Benjamin and how he set about to persecute Christians. Now he directs attention to the ‘true circumcision,’ which is a circumcision of the heart and not of the flesh. Those who have this heart circumcision can be known. They glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. (Even before the time of Jesus, the Jewish nation had become ‘flesh’ centered. They treated other people groups as worthless. Place your cursor over these Scriptures: Matt3:5-9; 23:31-35; Luke 11:52,53; Acts 10:27,28; 1Th2:14,15)

God’s Heavenly Tribe

When Josephus spoke of Christians as a tribe he saw something in Christians that related to kinship. The term ‘tribe’ generally speaks to a group of people related to one another by blood or marriage. From this kinship comes a social distinction. The early Christians were very much related by blood. Their hearts had been sprinkled by the blood of Jesus. They had become a distinct and separate people among the nations. All true Christians remain that way to this very day.

Peter describes Christians as a distinct spiritual people:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but not you have received mercy.” (1Pe 2:9-10)

“… to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.“ (1Pe 4:13-16)

Paul says that Christians are the true circumcision of God and that our citizenship is in heaven. Thus we are heavenly citizens in earthly bodies. We are a distinct people group. Peter goes on to call Christians a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation; that we glorify God in the name Christian.

A Kingdom of the Heart

The kingdom of God’s beloved Son is not of this world. It is a kingdom of the heart. This is why there is no ‘Lo, the kingdom is here.’ Or, ‘Lo, the kingdom is there.’ There are no special anointed places in the earth that contain the kingdom of God. No religious group can lay claim to being God’s true church in the earth.

When Pilate asked Jesus about His kingdom, this is how the conversation went:

“Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?’ Pilate answered, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?’

“Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.’ Therefore Pilate said to Him, ‘So You are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’

“Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, ‘I find no guilt in Him.'” (Joh 18:33-38)

Notice carefully that Jesus did not say He was king of the Jews. What He said was that His kingdom was not of this world or of this realm. The earthly kingdom of the Jews was soon to be destroyed. In 70 a.d., it would disappear from the face of the earth.

The kingdom of God’s Son is wholly spiritual, wholly heavenly, wholly eternal, and wholly of the heart. The Lord also said that everyone who is of the truth, that is, everyone who calls upon Him as their Lord and Savior, will have a personal relationship with Him and will always be able to hear His voice.

Jesus is a King. Have you asked Jesus to be Lord over your life? It isn’t hard to enter into God’s kingdom. It all begins with the cross. In the cross of the Lord Jesus is the God’s plan of salvation for all the earth.

I could share a great many Scriptures that set forth God’s plan of salvation. The truth of the matter is simple enough. Both Paul and Peter said, “And it shall come to pass that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

David was the one who said that God puts a song of salvation in his mouth. (Psa118:14) Here is God’s salvation plan in a song. Listen with your heart as Robert Parson sings ‘God’s Plan of Salvation.’

There you have. Why not right now ask the Lord to be Lord of all your life.

May the Lord richly bless you in your obedience to Him,

Buddy

Nov

2010

When Wisdom Becomes Foolishness

Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.” (Isa 29:13-14 NASB)

Journal,

With the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., the seed bed was already in place for the rabbis to create an entirely new Judaism. This new Judaism would branch out from the sect of the Pharisees. It was this seed bed that Jesus spoke against:

Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Mt15:3)

Without question this new Judaism had a number of problems. They had a powerful contender for the hearts of the Jewish people from a fast growing movement in Judaism that was taking on the name Christian. Rabbinic Judaism began developing alongside Christianity but in opposition to the Christian faith. The Christian faith would soon outgrow its Jewish clothing to encompass all the nations of the world. Rabbinic Judaism would forever remain very small in comparison.

That was the beginning of their problems. Whereas Rabbinic Judaism had no temple or a priesthood in place, the Jewish Christians could easily appeal to Moses and the prophets with regard to their Lord and Savior. The Messiah had come and was now the high priest of the new covenant. No further sacrifice was needed. The eternal blood of the covenant had been shed. The Spirit of Messiah now resided in the hearts of all true believers.

In a letter written to Jewish people we read this:

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Heb 13:20-21 NASB)

The path of foolishness begins…

The depth of foolishness began with the rejection of Jesus Christ. But how could the rabbis counter the Christian movement? Over time they began issuing warnings to the Jewish peoples about reading certain portions of the Old Testament. A curse was placed upon the reading of the book of Daniel and trying to calculate the times of Messiah. A strong warning was put in place against the study of Ezekiel with a special view to the ‘chariot of God.’ (Daniel set forth the very time for the coming of Messiah. Ezekiel spoke of the ‘form’ of God.)

The former testament began to taking on a dead shroud for the Jewish people. The glory of Israel had been rejected.

Paul wrote about the death shroud:

But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” (2Co 3:14-16 NASB)

It continued. The rabbis discarded the Septuagint translation, the writings of Josephus and the writings of Philo. The Targums were held at a distance. Everything that could have any bearing on Jesus Christ must be discarded. The people would have to view the Scriptures through another lens, the lens of the rabbis. They would set themselves up as the ‘final voice of God’ to the people. Even God would learn from them. (Don’t be surprised. This is in the writings of the rabbis.)

Why was Jesus and the apostles such a threat to the Jewish authorities

Why is the big question – Why does Talmudic Judaism to this day carry such a blindness to those who are held in its sway. Why is Judaism filled with such darkness? It all has to do with authority. The authority of the Jewish leaders was in question. In Talmudic Judaism the rabbis have actually taken the place of God. They consider themselves to be greater than Moses or any of the prophets. Their word is the final word.

We ought not be surprised? The Old Testament warned that the traditions of the elders would evolve into rabbinic Judaism. Listen again as God speaks through Isaiah, saying,

Because this people draws near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence consists of tradition learned by rote….

…Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.” (Cf. Isaiah 29:13,14)

It is crucial to place the apostolic writings in their proper role. The apostles were not simply called to be apostles to the Church. They were apostles to Israel, with Paul having an extended role with a view to the Gentiles. It is in this sense that apostles took up the mantle of the prophets of old. Jesus said to them,

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others [the prophets] have labored and you [the apostles] have entered into their labor.” (Jn4:38)

The prophets spoke to the coming of Messiah. They were His beforehand servants. The apostles spoke after the fact, that is, Israel’s Messiah had come, had ministered to the people, had been rejected, was crucified, rose from the dead, ascended on high and is now at the right hand of the glory on high. The apostles were His witnesses.

A second thing that needs to be understood has to do with Israel’s judgment of 70 A.D., over the rejection of Jesus Christ. These two issues are placed side-by-side by the Lord. Listen carefully:

So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them [the prophets], and you build their tombs. For this reason the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation.” (Cf. Luke 11:46-51)

A Matter of Redemption

This is a matter of redemption history. Why would the blood of the prophets and apostles be charged against that generation? It would be due to the greater sin of their leaders. If anyone should have recognized Jesus Christ as Israel’s Messiah, it would be that generation. All the prophets from ancient time spoke of the days of Christ. And the time of Messiah had been prophesied by Daniel.

The deeper side is that when the high priest and the elders of Israel rejected Jesus Christ, they were rejecting God Himself. You see, the blood that ran through the veins of Jesus was the very blood of God. And because they had rejected God Himself, there was no other sacrifice to be had. All that was left was a judgment. Israel would be given a transitional time for entering into the new covenant of Christ.

But there is more to the greater sin. Jesus said to Pilate,

You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” (Jn19:11)

The greater sin was the sin of knowledge. Many of the leaders especially of the Pharisees knew that Jesus was the Messiah. I realize we find this hard to believe, but a careful search of the gospels shows this to be the case. (It wasn’t the godly leadership that rejected Jesus. It was those of the house of Satan.)

And so we hear in the book of Hebrews this final warning:

For if we go on sinning willfully [Jewish people by rejecting Jesus] after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.”

The apostolic writer goes on to say,

Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Cf. Heb10:26-31)

The book of Hebrews has to do with whole of the Jewish people. It was written as a final warning not long before the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple in 70 A.D. The temple went up in a fiery judgment. The time of transition was over. The gospel had been sent to the Jew first. The new covenant no longer had a Jewish exclusiveness to it. It would belong to the people of the world. For God so loved the world….

Christianity was not some upstart religion

The point is that Christianity was not some upstart religion to be counted among the various movements in Judaism of the day. The testimony of God, the testimony of Moses, the testimony of the prophets, of David, of John the Baptist, the testimony of nature itself, the wonders and miracles, and the testimony of those Jews who had truly received Him as Lord and Savior, all bore witness against those who would reject Him. No further testimony was needed. That testimony remains in place today along with multiplied millions of people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior.

An example of the testimony is where Paul wrote,

Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

When hearing this the Jewish mind would instantly go to the prophet Ezekiel.

When Jesus said,

And what if you should see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before,”

… their minds would have gone to the book of Daniel and other of the prophetic writings. (Cf. Ph2:6; Jn6:62)

These terms ‘form of God’ and ‘Son of Man’ were almost exclusively used with regard to the One who was spoken of as the ‘Wisdom’ of God, the ‘Form’ of God, the ‘Glory’ of God, the ‘Power’ of God, the ‘Son’ of God, the ‘Rock’ of Israel, and the ‘Shepherd’ of Israel. There are other appellations, but these will suffice for now. The fact remaining is that Jesus is all that these names speak of and more. The testimony was so plain that the rabbis had to remove the testimony from the people. Thus a curse was placed upon the reading of Daniel, etc.

Why such a curse upon Daniel? Not only did Daniel prophecy the time of the coming of Messiah, but he also had a vision concerning the Messiah receiving His kingdom. Daniel’s vision was a beforehand vision concerning the ascension of Jesus Christ. The prophets of old spoke in ‘prophetic perfects.’ This means they saw the very thing they were prophesying. It was as though they were there. So Daniel saw Jesus coming to the throne.

What gives wonder to this is that the apostles saw the earthly departure of Jesus into the heavens whereas Daniel saw Jesus entering into His glory.

What the apostles saw:

And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” (Act 1:9 NASB)

What Daniel saw:

I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” (Dan7:13,14)

The Son of Man – The Form of God

The ‘Son of Man’ designation by the time of Jesus it had become a major designation for the Messiah. The term ‘form of God’ was an expression that had a special view to Messiah. This expression actually reaches back to Moses.

When Moses entered the holiest of holies, he stood before the radiant glory that rested over the mercy-seat. In the resplendent light, Moses saw a form. While the Hebrews were commanded not to make any actual form to represent God, listen to what God says to Miriam and Aaron:

‘If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses, He is faithful with all My household; with Him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, even Moses.'” (Num12:6-8.)

Did you catch it? When Paul said that Jesus existed in the form of God, this meant that it was Jesus who appeared over the mercy seat in the radiant light. Paul explains it also by saying that Jesus is ‘the image of the invisible God.’ So we have God who is unseen, but who is fully seen in Jesus Christ. Thus we have Paul saying that in Jesus is the fullness of Deity in bodily form. We also know that Paul himself had been accosted by the radiant light on his way to Damascus.

What does all this have to do with the wisdom of the wise perishing? It has much to do, indeed. When Isaiah spoke of the wise losing their wisdom, it was with a view to rabbinic traditions that would eventually evolve into a full-blown religion called Talmudic Judaism.

The point at hand is that Talmudic Judaism is a blinding religion. It places a death shroud over the book of God. In fact the best thing you could ever tell a Jew is for them to read their own Bible. If they will do that, it will destroy the shroud of Talmudic Judaism.

Here again we must come back to Isaiah. Listen:

The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, ‘Please read this,’ he will say, ‘I cannot, for it is sealed.'” Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, ‘Please read this.’ And he will say, ‘I cannot read.'”(Isa29:11,12)

What I’ve just shared is the prelude to the earlier quote from Isaiah, where God says, “The wisdom of their wise men will perish.”

What is going to make the wise men’s wisdom perish

It comes back to the book that will be opened by Jesus and will continue to be opened by God’s servants through the ages.

God speaks further in Isaiah, saying,

On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the Lord, and the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” (Vv18,19)

Yes, the gospel messaged weaves itself through all the Old Testament. And Talmudic wisdom will deflower itself and show itself for what it really is. It has been a death shroud to hide the glory of Israel from the Jewish people. Two thousand years ago and old man prophesied over the child Jesus and His mother, saying,

Behold, this Child is appointed for THE FALL and RISE of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed.” (Luke 2:34)

The fall came with the rejection of Jesus. The rise comes with the acceptance. The cross was a sign that has been opposed by Rabbinic Judaism throughout the church age.

Oh yes, the Bible is a wonderful book. It is the only book of any religion that actually records history before it happens. It is the only book that speaks from the throne of God. Listen to this ancient prophecy given by Moses. (It is alluded to by Peter on the day of Pentecost 33 a.d.)

Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. ‘They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” (Deu 32:20-21 NASB) — This quote is from the song of Moses. Compare Rev15:3

And so we hear the apostle Paul quote from Isaiah the prophet, saying,

For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1Co1:19,20)

Take time to listen to the Song of Moses and the Lamb…

In Christ always,

Buddy

Jul

2010

The Divine Rights of Access…

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb 4:16 NASB)

x x

Readers,

It is quite interesting how the religious man attempts to rebuild what God has torn down. Old Testament Judaism with its temple sacrifices and mediatorial priesthood had served a purpose. That purpose ended with the cross. It was replaced by a much greater covenant, the covenant of Christ.

The covenant of Christ is about personal freedom and direct access to the throne of God. It is about our heavenly life in Christ. It is about the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The covenant of Christ is about a new creation where all the former things pass away.

In the new covenant, everything is new. The covenant of Christ is not the covenant of the Law, renovated, revived, reformed, refurbished, or ‘re’ anything. The covenant of Law was made for an earthy people. The covenant of Christ is for a heavenly people.

Listen to what the writer says in his letter to the Hebrews:

“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22

For some background on this we need to reach back to the time of Adam.

The Undefiled Conscience

When God created Adam, he was created with no sense of guilt, no consciousness of sin, or of worthlessness, or even of inferiority. Adam was adorned with glory. He was made in the very image and likeness of God. It never once entered Adam’s mind to question his right to the awesome presence of God.

Even the angels knew that Adam was different from them. Actually Adam is the only person in the Bible, aside from Jesus Christ, to ever be called ‘the son of God.’

We see this in Luke as he relates the genealogy of Jesus;

“… the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” (Luk 3:38 NASB)

Of course we know the story. Adam rejected God’s Word and God’s will for himself. From that moment Adam became conscious of the nature of sin. And now the Adam race could only approach the Lord in measured ways.

Such a fall — From glory to earthliness. Adam and Eve lost their glory and found themselves in a culture of sin and death.

The apostle said it well enough;

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Where then is the victory

The judgment of condemnation was removed in Christ. Every person who comes to Jesus, enters the wonderment of a totally new covenant. In this new covenant there is an act of creation. Being born again means to be born from heaven. Believers are now heavenly citizens, actual sons and daughters of God. Yes, we are heavenly citizens in earthly bodies. That will change in due course.

Let’s look more closely at what Hebrews 10:19-22 has to say.

“We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.”

The covenant of Law provided limited access to God. Only priests were permitted to enter the holy place, and only the high priest could enter the holiest of holies once a year. Thus the priests became mediators between the people and God. In the new covenant there is only one mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lose this truth and you place yourself under the bondage of another man made religious system.

The Veil of Separation

The veil in the tabernacle spoke of man’s separation from God. Yet behind the veil was another picture. The mercy seat had two cherubim gazing intently at the center of the lid of the ark of the covenant. This was a picture of the angels in wonderment over the work of the cross.

What happened when Jesus yielded up His spirit on the cross? It says,

“And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Mark 15:38)

This could only mean one thing. The Adam sin was accounted for. The veil of separation was removed by Jesus Christ.

Listen to Paul:

“So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.” (1Co 15:45-47 NASB)

Did you catch it? The first Adam was made from the earth. The last Adam came from heaven and took to Himself a human body. Jesus Christ took the sin of all humanity upon himself. What is left now is for the world to be reconciled to God.

Condemnation has been removed. Our first estate is returned. We can now walk with God with no sense of guilt, of worthlessness, or of condemnation. We have divine rights to the very presence of our heavenly Father. The apostle said,

“There is therefore now no condemnation (katakrima means a sentence of judgment) for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom8:1,2)

The Romans 8:1 Scripture is emphatic in the Greek. The emphasis is clear; ‘There is not now, nor can there ever be a damnatory sentence against anyone who is in Christ Jesus.’ Why? Because of the law of the cross; ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”

Does this mean we have carte blanche to live sinful lives? Far from it. Sin always carries consequences. What it means is that sin is no longer our master.

In addition to our full and completed salvation in Jesus Christ, we are given spiritual expressions and attributes that help us to deal with issues of sin. (A teaching in itself.)

Full Assurance of Faith

Back to our Hebrew Scriptures. What did the writer say? Follow closely —

“Brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.”

The word confidence is a strong word. Parresia speaks of unrestrained freedom to speak openly and directly and boldly with our God. Here we have a hint of Adam in the beginning. Adam could speak with confidence. He was not ashamed of who he was. He was God’s son.

How did we gain this direct access to God?

“By the blood of Jesus.”

How are we to approach God?

“In full assurance of faith.”

Under what conditions do we approach God? It says,

“Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

This point is stressed throughout the letter of Hebrews. In quoting from the prophet Jeremiah, we hear,

“And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Heb8:11,12)

How does this relate to our personal walk with the Lord.

God removed the haziness of religion to give man the full Light of His Son. People who keep reaching back into the Law of Moses are disinheriting themselves from the liberty and glory of being a very child of God.

Paul said to the Galatian believers,

“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:6,7)

Too many Christians remained stifled in their spiritual life because they know so little about their true life in Christ. Don’t think of other people as special mediators between you and God. This includes both priest, prophet, and pastor. You have one mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, we should love and respect those who teach us properly in the ways of the Lord. But never to the extent that they alone can hear from the Lord. God is your Father. You have a personal invitation to meet Him at the throne of grace any time you wish.

And so we hear this warning early on in the book of Hebrews:

“For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” (Heb 2:1 NASB)

Have you ever seriously thought on the following Scripture?

“So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.” (1Co 3:21-23 NASB)

How about this one:

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

Here is your song. ‘In Christ Alone’

Always your friend in Christ,

Buddy

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A Kingdom of the Heart

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The Divine Rights of Access…

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