Tag: following me

51.c. Wilderness – 15.i. “Chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession”

 

 

Deu 14:1-2  “You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

 John 1:12    But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

 Jeremiah 3:19   “‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

 1 Thessalonians 4:13     But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

“The cutting of the body and the shaving of the head were common mourning rites in the ancient Near East and are referred to in many places in the Old Testament (Isaiah 3:24; 15:2; 22:12; Jeremiah 16:6; 41:5; Ezekiel 7:18; Amos 8:10; Micah 1:16).” (Thompson)

 Among Christians today, there is something wrong if our burial customs are just as the rituals of the ungodly. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:13: But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. We may certainly mourn the passing of our loved ones, but as those who have eternal hope in Jesus, we should be different in our mourning. (Guzik)

Ye are not only the creatures, and the offspring, but the peculiar people, the worshippers, the servants, and those of you that are truly pious, the adopted children of Jehovah, the one living and true God, who is your God in covenant; and therefore you should not dishonour him, your heavenly Father, nor disparage yourselves, by unworthy or unbecoming practices. (Benson)

God’s people are required to be holy, and if they are holy, they are indebted to the grace God which makes them so. Those whom God chooses to be his children, he will form to be a holy people, and zealous of good works. They must be careful to avoid every thing which might disgrace their profession, in the sight of those who watch for their halting. (Henry)

Ye are the children of the Lord your God,…. Some of them were so by the special grace of adoption, and all of them by national adoption; which was the peculiar privilege of the people of Israel, and laid them under great obligation to honour and obey the Lord their God, who stood in the relation of a father to them, and they of children to him. (Gill)

The Israelites were not only to suffer no idolatry to rise up in their midst, but in all their walk of life to show themselves as a holy nation of the Lord. (Keil)

27. “And I thought you would call me, My Father”

 

Ephesians 1:5 In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

 Daniel 4:35  all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

 Romans 8:29-30   For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

 Jeremiah 3:19   “‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

 John 1:12   But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

 Philippians 2:13     for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

He predestined, According to His will, He called, He justified, He glorified, He works in you, He gave, He foreknew, and He has blessed us. If you were asked why God created?  Why did He create all there is?  Why did God do this if He foreknew the outcome?  There are a host of other questions but that certainly is being asked by souls every day.  God is God and for us to think we have the mental capacity to understand more than a thimble worth of knowledge about Him in an ocean of who He is we are more than foolish.  We know He is holy, righteous, loving, full of grace, mercy, and love. We know that He sent His only son to bear our sin burdens on the cross and redeem us from eternal hell at the proper time. How can we even grasp the laws that govern time, space, earthly, heavenly, eternity, etc….We can’t.  We try as hard as we might but at the end of the day, we aren’t really any closer to having this understanding.  I have heard people reject the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ because they don’t believe there is a living God because Their god would act differently.  There would be no sickness, death, wars, or famine.  Their god would not dream of creating sinful man., sickness, death, pain, suffering……  

Here we read of God foreknew, God, predestined, according to His will.  My God, and hopefully yours too is awesome in power, strength, wisdom, knowledge, grace, mercy, and love.  His plans are perfect.  His ways are Holy.  His creation points toward Himself as the author.  His will can never be questioned because His purposes are right and true and holy.  

How should we act when we know the creator of all there is and ever will be has called us to Himself so that through belief in His Son, Jesus Christ, we are set free from the judgment and penalty of sin.  I can think of nothing worse than a person who has been given a glimpse of God and an elementary understanding of the need for salvation, and knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then reject God and Jesus without a second thought.  I guess I can think of something else that is worse.  Those who have tasted of the love of Jesus Christ and choose to neglect God’s Word and deafen their ears to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Blessed are those who hear His calling and believe in Jesus Christ for they are sons of the Most High.  In all you say, think, and do make sure that it honors and glorifies Jesus Christ.  Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

17.r. “Because you are his sons”

Galatians 4:6   Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

 Jeremiah 3:19   “‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

 Romans 8:9     You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

 Jeremiah 32:38-41    And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.  I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.  I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul

When we groaned under a sense of sin, and were shut up by it as in a prison, we feared that the law would punish us for our iniquity, and our life was made bitter with fear. Moreover, we strove in our own blind self-sufficient manner to keep that law, and this brought us into yet another bondage, which became harder and harder as failure succeeded to failure: we sinned and stumbled more and more to our soul’s confusion. But now that faith has come we see the law fulfilled in Christ, and ourselves justified and accepted in him: this changes the slave into a child, and duty into choice. Now we delight in the law, and by the power of the Spirit we walk in holiness to the glory of God. Thus it is that by believing in Christ Jesus we escape from Moses, the taskmaster, and come to Jesus, the Saviour; we cease to regard God as an angry Judge and view him as our loving Father. The system of merit and command, and punishment and fear, has given way to the rule of grace, gratitude, and love, and this new principle of government is one of the grand privileges of the children of God

Now, faith is the mark of sonship in all who have it, whoever they may be, for “you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3:26). If you are believing in Jesus, whether you are Jew or Gentile, bond or free, you are a son of God. If you have only believed in Christ of late, and have but for the past few weeks been able to rest in his great salvation, yet, beloved, now are you a child of God. It is not an after privilege, granted to assurance or growth in grace; it is an early blessing, and belongs to him who has the smallest degree of faith, and is no more than a babe in grace. If a man be a believer in Jesus Christ his name is in the register-book of the great family above, “for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” But if you have no faith, no matter what zeal, no matter what works, no matter what knowledge, no matter what pretensions to holiness you may possess, you are nothing, and your religion is vain. Without faith in Christ you are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, for without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith then, wherever it is found, is the infallible token of a child of God, and its absence is fatal to the claim. (Spurgeon)

35. Sin is crouching at your door

Numbers 33:55   But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.

Exodus 23:33     They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Deuteronomy 7:4     for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.

Joshua 23:12-13     For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you,  know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you.

Psalms 106:34-36    They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them,  but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did.  They served their idols, which became a snare to them.

Genesis 4:7   If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; you are its object of desire, but you must master it.”

Romans 6:11  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

Psalms 119:133    Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.

Romans 8:13     For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 13:14    But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

I have taken most of this from an author on the internet but could not find his name to the article.

It helps to illustrate the force of sin and to suggest that, among other things, that we have to answer for every deed, however quickly it fades, however long forgotten. Its guilt is on our heads. Its consequences have to be experienced by us. We drink as we have brewed. As we make our beds, so we lie on them. There is no escape from the law of consequences.

Think how you would like it, if all your deeds from your childhood, all your follies, your vices, your evil thoughts, your evil impulses, and your evil actions, were all made visible and embodied there before you. They are there, though you do not see them yet. All around your door they sit, ready to meet you and to bay out condemnation as you go forth. They are there, and one day you will find out that they are. For this is the law, certain as the revolution of the stars and fixed as the pillars of the firmament: ‘Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.’ There is no seed which does not sprout, in the harvest of the moral life. Every deed germinates according to its kind. For all that a man does he has to carry the consequences, and every one shall bear his own burden. ‘If thou doest not well,’ it is not, as we fondly conceive it sometimes to be, a mere passing deflection from the rule of right, which is done and done with, but we have created, as out of our very own substance, a witness against ourselves whose voice can never be stifled. ‘If thou doest not well,’ thy sin takes permanent form and is fastened to thy door.

The records of memory are like those pages on which you write with sympathetic ink, which disappears when dry, and seems to leave the page blank.  ‘Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ Beware of the first step, for as sure as you are living, the first step taken will make the second seem to become necessary. The first drop will be followed by a bigger second, and the second, at a shorter interval, by a more copious third, until the drops become a shower, and the shower becomes a deluge. The river of evil is ever wider and deeper, and more tumultuous. The little sins get in at the window and open the front door for the full-grown housebreakers.

Can a man cast out sin from his nature by his own resolve?  Can a man cleanse himself from every deed and thought he has had or done throughout his life?  Does forgetting sins of the past remove the consequences for eternity? Can a man keep all the sin that is crouching at his door at bay?  NO, he can’t.

Your sin is mightier than you. The old word of the Psalm is true about every one of us, ‘Our iniquities are stronger than we.’ And, blessed be His name! the hope of the Psalmist is the experience of the Christian: ‘As for my transgressions, Thou wilt purge them away.’ Christ will strengthen you to conquer; Christ will take away your guilt; Christ will bear, has borne your burden; Christ will cleanse your memory; Christ will purge your conscience. Trusting to Him, and by His power and life within us, we may conquer our evil. Trusting to Him, and for the sake of His blood shed for us all upon the cross, we are delivered from the burden, guilt, and power of our sins and of our sin. With your belief in Him, your hand in His, your trust in Him, your reliance in Him, and your will submitted to Him, sin can be removed as far as the east is from the west.

What fellowship has light with darkness

Genesis 24:1  Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

Nehemiah 13:25    And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

Exodus 34:16    and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

Deuteronomy 7:3-4     You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,  for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

2 Corinthians 6:14-17    Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Matthew Henry writes about marriage of Isaac;

Marriage is to be undertaken with much care and with reference to the will of God, and with prayer for his direction and blessing. When God is not consulted and regarded His blessing cannot be expected. It is natural for parents to be concerned about the welfare of their children’s souls and that their walk this side of eternity is on the path of God’s purpose.   Note that Abraham remembers what God had wonderfully brought him out of the land of his birth, by the call of his grace; and therefore does not doubt He will prosper what he has placed in his care – His son Isaac.

It is also true that if we think we can partner or bond with things of this world and liberal culture and it not have an affect on our commitment to God is foolish.   When His word is void in our daily lives there will be no guiding light to direct all of the decisions big and small.  When the world culture is the major influence in your values it is impossible to discern what is honorable and in obedience to God’s plan and purposes.

Aim to humbly honor, serve, follow, glorify and obey Him surely our decisions will be inline with His word and the quiet whispers of His leading.