Thank goodness that’s over. I had to fire a resident assistant at the very end of November, which meant I got to take over her shift of 4:30-10 p.m. on Wednesdays throughout this month because I’d already made the schedule for assignments.
Fortunately, I was able to listen to Shorewood over the internet this evening and, despite the dozen or so interruptions from residents and RAs, I got in some good meat (not to mention material for my writings).
This has been a long day for me. I got up early to make our second food pickup of the month from the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The highlight was there was NO traffic on Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan’s waves were kicking up pretty good from my vantage point in our super-long Ford Econoline handicap van. (The lowlight was finding out after my late-late workday that my internet service was suspended due to non-payment even though I was led to believe I successfully transferred to an automated payment service through my credit card!)
I’ve always loved this week between Christmas and New Year’s, where half the population abandons the city and the other half isn’t really working. The one regret is I didn’t get to take advantage of it for a smooth, no-hassle drive out to church tonight!
Anyway, here’s an outtake from tonight’s message:
“Gideon’s one of my favorite guys in the Bible because he’s just so human. I read through the whole Bible at least twice a year and in my personal reading just this past week one of the books I read was the Book of Judges.
“It’s hard to beat Gideon. I always think, ‘Lord, I’m glad you put that guy in the Bible because he demonstrates how God has dealt with folks like us before!' Sometime you think nobody’s ever messed up like you’ve messed up or been as dumb as you’ve been, that kind of stuff, or been as proud or self-righteous as you are.
“You just look at Gideon and you get it all. I’m just amazed by the guy. When you come to Judges 9 Gideon’s life is over. He lived quite a life. In Chapter 7 he delivers Israel with the little band of 300 and then he lives a prosperous life. If you look at Judges 8, it says, ‘[29] And Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house.
[30] And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives.
[31] And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, whose name he called Abimelech.’
“That dude had 70 kids! He had to have had a lot of wives to have had that many kids. I mean, you go figure.
“Gideon didn’t end so well. When he made an ephod, an ephod is a part of the garment of a priest. It’s like the robe the priest wears. Gideon wasn’t a priest, though. One of the great sins in the Old Testament that you’ll see great men (Saul, for example) do they try to usurp the priesthood. They try to take the office of a priest. Sometime they’re prophets, sometime they’re kings, there’s only one person outside the Lord Jesus Christ that met all three offices in one person and that’s King David.
“Samuel, for example, was a prophet. He also functioned as a priest, offering sacrifices. But he wasn’t a king. Saul was a king who tried to usurp the priest office and lost his kingdom because of it.
“Getting between God and man, Gideon was a judge. He wasn’t designed to be a priest. But what he does is he gets into a spiritual declension and he begins to spiritually fail and he adopts apostasy. And you get to verse 31, he has his favorite son; Abimelech is the name of a heathen king.
“You know, you sort of name your kids after your heroes. Why would Gideon name his boy after a pagan king? You scratch your head at that; he’s not ending well."
(To be continued . . . )
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Say hi to Louie for me Rita
Our first Christmas without my sister has been extra special. The best part was having my niece and brother-in-law present my mom with a Christmas card my sister had intended to put in the mail for her (with extra stamps on it and everything) but must have forgotten because it was found in cleaning out her stuff shortly after her death last April.
She had marked on the top of the inside of the gold-embossed card with roses all over it: “XMAS 2010.” Written on it was, “To Mommy, Love from the bottom of my (she drew a heart on it as she was famous for doing—going back to childhood) to you Always. Thankful for YOU! God Bless You ALWAYS. Rita (with another heart drawn as an extension to the “a” at the end of her name).
The card itself read, in part, “For a wonderful mother. Life has been so wonderful Because of all you’ve done, And of all the gifts you’ve given, Love has been the greatest one. At Christmas And Always, You’re Loved So Much.”
I didn’t even know about this strangely found greetings card (from the card company Ambassador, of all things!) until I caught my mom exiting the living room (where we were all unwrapping presents) with tears in her eyes. She passed me the card and then I was the one tearing up. My brother was next.
It was a wonderful reminder of Rita, who was having the struggle of her life at this holiday time last year, trying her hardest to cope with a multitude of serious ills while simultaneously attending hearings, etc., in her suit against former employer Wal-Mart--a case that is still moving forward and will hopefully one day give some sense of retribution (if that’s even the right word) to our family.
The great gift that we all have is knowing she is home now with the Lord, safe and secure in His loving arms. She loved that very famous painting of an image of a long-haired Jesus Christ in a robe, hugging someone.
My gift from my mom was an iPod Nano for downloading music. It is quite the shift from my Sony Walkman!!! Yes, I’m someone who’s still tugging along a Walkman for jogging, walking, listening to sermons in my car, etc.
The first download I made was, “Bridge over Troubled Water,” from my favorite group from childhood—Simon and Garfunkel. Then, without much thought, I downloaded a favorite old piece—“I’m Your Captain/I’m Getting closer to My Home,” by Grand Funk Railroad. The third quick $1.29 download was, “Only the Beginning,” from “The Best of Chicago” album. I can already see how easily addictive (and expensive) this all is!
After hearing a favorite song this morning watching Shorewood online, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” I’ve already started investigating the iTune store’s old hymn offerings. I know it’s gonna be hard to even think of using my Walkman after this MAJOR technological advancement for me!!!
Well, just wanted to shout out a “Merry Christmas!” and give a big thumbs-up report on how mine is going!
She had marked on the top of the inside of the gold-embossed card with roses all over it: “XMAS 2010.” Written on it was, “To Mommy, Love from the bottom of my (she drew a heart on it as she was famous for doing—going back to childhood) to you Always. Thankful for YOU! God Bless You ALWAYS. Rita (with another heart drawn as an extension to the “a” at the end of her name).
The card itself read, in part, “For a wonderful mother. Life has been so wonderful Because of all you’ve done, And of all the gifts you’ve given, Love has been the greatest one. At Christmas And Always, You’re Loved So Much.”
I didn’t even know about this strangely found greetings card (from the card company Ambassador, of all things!) until I caught my mom exiting the living room (where we were all unwrapping presents) with tears in her eyes. She passed me the card and then I was the one tearing up. My brother was next.
It was a wonderful reminder of Rita, who was having the struggle of her life at this holiday time last year, trying her hardest to cope with a multitude of serious ills while simultaneously attending hearings, etc., in her suit against former employer Wal-Mart--a case that is still moving forward and will hopefully one day give some sense of retribution (if that’s even the right word) to our family.
The great gift that we all have is knowing she is home now with the Lord, safe and secure in His loving arms. She loved that very famous painting of an image of a long-haired Jesus Christ in a robe, hugging someone.
My gift from my mom was an iPod Nano for downloading music. It is quite the shift from my Sony Walkman!!! Yes, I’m someone who’s still tugging along a Walkman for jogging, walking, listening to sermons in my car, etc.
The first download I made was, “Bridge over Troubled Water,” from my favorite group from childhood—Simon and Garfunkel. Then, without much thought, I downloaded a favorite old piece—“I’m Your Captain/I’m Getting closer to My Home,” by Grand Funk Railroad. The third quick $1.29 download was, “Only the Beginning,” from “The Best of Chicago” album. I can already see how easily addictive (and expensive) this all is!
After hearing a favorite song this morning watching Shorewood online, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” I’ve already started investigating the iTune store’s old hymn offerings. I know it’s gonna be hard to even think of using my Walkman after this MAJOR technological advancement for me!!!
Well, just wanted to shout out a “Merry Christmas!” and give a big thumbs-up report on how mine is going!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Hid with Him
Paul writes in Phil. 4:22, “All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household.” In chapter 1:13 he’s already told them, “So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; all the palaces.”
Jordan says, “It’s fascinating that the gospel was making inroads in Rome all the way to the palaces of Caesar. Paul’s in prison. One of the greatest things in ministry, I thankfully realized many years ago, is the Body of Christ doesn’t belong to me. The Body of Christ belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and it’s His responsibility, task and job to take care of it.
“Those three words—in Christ Jesus and variations thereof. In Christ, in Him. Paul uses over 130 times that phrase in his 13 little epistles. That is a dominant thinking of the Apostle Paul because in Paul’s mind, being in Christ Jesus is the essence of what Christianity is about. It’s the essence of the grace of God. It’s the essence of who we are and it’s what Philippians is about doing. Christ is our life, our mind, our goal, our strength. He’s the sum total; He’s the excellency of all that we have.
“In Christ--You got to the get the idea. To be in something. The idea is to be in the sphere of something. I like to say you’re encapsulized. You see if you were in a circle that would be different. When you’re in capsule you’re surrounded with protection and then if a brick fell what would happen? It would bounce off. You’re completely surrounded. That’s what it means to be in Christ.
Paul says in Colossians 3:3, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Jordan says, “I used to struggle with this verse, wondering, ‘What does it mean?’ Then it dawned on me it means exactly what it says. What a thought! If I’m standing in circle I’m not hid and you can see me! It’s just on one plane. I’m totally submerged inside of God with Christ! You know what that is? That’s security. That means I’m safe and secure inside of Him from any harm; any foes on the outside. And I’m completely supplied by everything that’s in the capsule.”
Jordan says, “It’s fascinating that the gospel was making inroads in Rome all the way to the palaces of Caesar. Paul’s in prison. One of the greatest things in ministry, I thankfully realized many years ago, is the Body of Christ doesn’t belong to me. The Body of Christ belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and it’s His responsibility, task and job to take care of it.
“Those three words—in Christ Jesus and variations thereof. In Christ, in Him. Paul uses over 130 times that phrase in his 13 little epistles. That is a dominant thinking of the Apostle Paul because in Paul’s mind, being in Christ Jesus is the essence of what Christianity is about. It’s the essence of the grace of God. It’s the essence of who we are and it’s what Philippians is about doing. Christ is our life, our mind, our goal, our strength. He’s the sum total; He’s the excellency of all that we have.
“In Christ--You got to the get the idea. To be in something. The idea is to be in the sphere of something. I like to say you’re encapsulized. You see if you were in a circle that would be different. When you’re in capsule you’re surrounded with protection and then if a brick fell what would happen? It would bounce off. You’re completely surrounded. That’s what it means to be in Christ.
Paul says in Colossians 3:3, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Jordan says, “I used to struggle with this verse, wondering, ‘What does it mean?’ Then it dawned on me it means exactly what it says. What a thought! If I’m standing in circle I’m not hid and you can see me! It’s just on one plane. I’m totally submerged inside of God with Christ! You know what that is? That’s security. That means I’m safe and secure inside of Him from any harm; any foes on the outside. And I’m completely supplied by everything that’s in the capsule.”
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Two-step processes
Deut. 16:16 says, “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:”
Jordan explains, “When you go before the Lord those three times wherever you live, wherever a Jew was, wherever he lived, in all the land mass of Israel or if he lived in a foreign country, three times a year he was to go to Jerusalem. One of the things they had to go there for was to keep their loyalty toward the place where God put His name. That’s the way they were to finance that holy day.
“When you say ‘holiday,’ what you’ve done is taken the word holy day and made one word out of it. So what they did three times a year was—Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. They financed a trip; a festival or a holiday to Jerusalem with that second tithe.
“Think about if I told you that you had to tithe TWO tithes. Give God one and you got to keep the other to go on vacation--you probably wouldn’t mind tithing so much, would you? They took a vacation with an eternal purpose. They went to Jerusalem and worshipped, and if they couldn’t take it with them because it was too far, they could turn it into money.
"When they go to Jerusalem, that’s what the money changers were there for (that Jesus ran out of the temple). People come in there with the money, then they were buying the sacrifice animals and so forth when they got there.
*****
“The Lord Jesus Christ talked about hell a lot, but Paul never uses the term hell. And people say, 'Paul never used the term hell; he must not have believed in it.' And I think, 'Well what do you think verse 9 is talking about?!'
“If you want to argue and say, ‘Well, that is that ultimate end out there—the lake of fire—then that’s not technically a reference to hell,’ but death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. Hell is the place where the souls of lost people are held in prison as it were, until the Great White Throne Judgment.
“And I’ve tried to use the illustration to you already about lost people. The prognosis is ‘he that believes not is condemned already’ (John 3:18). You don’t need to stand before God to find out whether you’re lost or not.
“Hell is like the jail in which the condemned are held; you’re already guilty but you haven’t been sentenced yet. The Great White Throne Judgment
is the sentencing and after it death and hell are going to be cast into the lake of fire. That’s the Big House! So when we talk about hell, technically you’re talking about that confinement place up until the great white throne judgment. And then after that it’s the lake of fire. That’s that ultimate end.
“What Paul does talk about is everlasting destruction. He talks about the wrath of God. Ephesians 2:3.
“Ephesians 5:6. So why does the wrath of God fall on lost people? He says because of these sinful activities that people participate in they earn the wrath of God. Well, he didn’t say hell, but hell’s just the place where the wrath of God is executed.
“The idea that Paul didn’t believe in eternal judgment simply because he didn’t use the term that describes a temporary place where that wrath and judgment is executed doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in eternal judgment.
“Romans 2:3. That’s what you get when you deal with God based on your own works. Now where does that take place? When Jesus Christ comes back ‘in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God’ and destroys them with everlasting destruction that separates them eternally from God.
“Romans 5:9. That’s a comforting verse when you think about the everlasting destruction that the wages of sin brings about.
“People say, ‘Well, when he talks there about everlasting destruction, that word ‘everlasting’ doesn’t mean that it lasts forever. You say, ‘Well, where do you get that?’
“The way people do that is they go to the Greek word ‘eon’ and the Greek term is ‘eon of the eons and age of the age.’ And the ages of the ages. And then they say, ‘See, when he describes eternity as the age of the ages, well, sooner or later, the ages are going to come to an end.’
“No matter how many there are, it’s a finite idea and they use the Greek terms like that, and what happens when people start doing that is what you find out is people don’t know enough about the Greek language to tell you what the Greek words mean, and you don’t know enough about it to find out about it either, so you wind up everybody being confused and led into error.
“Now when he says they’re going to be punished with everlasting destruction, come with me one verse that will settle the thing. Luke 1:33.
“Talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel’s appeared to Mary and told her she’s going to be the mother of the humanity of Christ and he says to her in verse 32.
“What does forever mean? It means no end. Well in the verse eons of eons means ‘no end!’ Eph. 3:21. How long do all ages last? World without end. When he said all ages, he’s not talking about all of them until they end. He’s talking about the fact they’re not going to end. It’s going to be world without end.
“If you come back to Isaiah 45 it’s a concept that comes out of the Hebrew bible. Isaiah 45:17. So how long is everlasting? It’s without end. Isaiah 23, just in case you have a problem with that word ‘world,’ there’s more than one way that term world can be used.
“We can talk about the world and sometimes be talking about the earth, but most of the time we’re not. We’re talking about the activity of life on the earth during a period of time, which would be an age.
“You talk about the world of sports. Is there a planet called sports? No, you know that. The world of politics, economics, we’re talking about the cosmos, the system of sports. The system of economics.
“Isaiah 23:17. There the term world is obviously not a reference to the planet. It’s a reference to something taking place on the planet. The planet is the face of the earth. So when you see the word ‘world’ in your Bible, don’t just immediately assume it’s talking about the planet. It can be also be talking about the world on the face of the planet. In other words, the organization of the kingdoms of the world; the organized affairs of the governmental systems that are on the earth.
“So when he talks about world without end, being without end is ‘it doesn’t ever stop.’ There will always be the organized universe and it’s going to last forever. And the ‘without end’ the ‘eon of the eon,’ the forever means it never stops. It means it’s going to go on forever; it’s going to be an everlasting salvation.
“Another way people try to take eternal and say that it’s not forever is to say that when you die ‘the everlasting destruction’ is that they don’t exist anymore.
“In Matthew 25:41, Jesus is talking about people who are judged out of the tribulation. How long does that fire last? Forever because it’s everlasting! It’s not going to be annihilation. Verse 46: annihilation means the punishment is over. It’s gone because you’re gone.
*****
“With the skins God covered Adam and Eve with the clothing. There’s a two-step process. One, God went and sacrificed the animal. Then He came to Adam and Eve and said, ‘Here’s the clothing.’ Adam and Eve had to willingly accept the clothing and put it on. God provided it.
“Until He skinned it and brought it, there was no provision for Adam to have his nakedness covered. But had Adam not accepted the clothing, he’d have still stood naked with the clothing at his feet.
"It would have been like he told Cain, ‘Sin lies at the door. The answer’s right there but you got to put it on.’ So there’s really a two-step process there in the first example of redemption. There’s the shedding of blood. God did that but then they had to accept the covering and put it on.”
Jordan explains, “When you go before the Lord those three times wherever you live, wherever a Jew was, wherever he lived, in all the land mass of Israel or if he lived in a foreign country, three times a year he was to go to Jerusalem. One of the things they had to go there for was to keep their loyalty toward the place where God put His name. That’s the way they were to finance that holy day.
“When you say ‘holiday,’ what you’ve done is taken the word holy day and made one word out of it. So what they did three times a year was—Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. They financed a trip; a festival or a holiday to Jerusalem with that second tithe.
“Think about if I told you that you had to tithe TWO tithes. Give God one and you got to keep the other to go on vacation--you probably wouldn’t mind tithing so much, would you? They took a vacation with an eternal purpose. They went to Jerusalem and worshipped, and if they couldn’t take it with them because it was too far, they could turn it into money.
"When they go to Jerusalem, that’s what the money changers were there for (that Jesus ran out of the temple). People come in there with the money, then they were buying the sacrifice animals and so forth when they got there.
*****
“The Lord Jesus Christ talked about hell a lot, but Paul never uses the term hell. And people say, 'Paul never used the term hell; he must not have believed in it.' And I think, 'Well what do you think verse 9 is talking about?!'
“If you want to argue and say, ‘Well, that is that ultimate end out there—the lake of fire—then that’s not technically a reference to hell,’ but death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. Hell is the place where the souls of lost people are held in prison as it were, until the Great White Throne Judgment.
“And I’ve tried to use the illustration to you already about lost people. The prognosis is ‘he that believes not is condemned already’ (John 3:18). You don’t need to stand before God to find out whether you’re lost or not.
“Hell is like the jail in which the condemned are held; you’re already guilty but you haven’t been sentenced yet. The Great White Throne Judgment
is the sentencing and after it death and hell are going to be cast into the lake of fire. That’s the Big House! So when we talk about hell, technically you’re talking about that confinement place up until the great white throne judgment. And then after that it’s the lake of fire. That’s that ultimate end.
“What Paul does talk about is everlasting destruction. He talks about the wrath of God. Ephesians 2:3.
“Ephesians 5:6. So why does the wrath of God fall on lost people? He says because of these sinful activities that people participate in they earn the wrath of God. Well, he didn’t say hell, but hell’s just the place where the wrath of God is executed.
“The idea that Paul didn’t believe in eternal judgment simply because he didn’t use the term that describes a temporary place where that wrath and judgment is executed doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in eternal judgment.
“Romans 2:3. That’s what you get when you deal with God based on your own works. Now where does that take place? When Jesus Christ comes back ‘in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God’ and destroys them with everlasting destruction that separates them eternally from God.
“Romans 5:9. That’s a comforting verse when you think about the everlasting destruction that the wages of sin brings about.
“People say, ‘Well, when he talks there about everlasting destruction, that word ‘everlasting’ doesn’t mean that it lasts forever. You say, ‘Well, where do you get that?’
“The way people do that is they go to the Greek word ‘eon’ and the Greek term is ‘eon of the eons and age of the age.’ And the ages of the ages. And then they say, ‘See, when he describes eternity as the age of the ages, well, sooner or later, the ages are going to come to an end.’
“No matter how many there are, it’s a finite idea and they use the Greek terms like that, and what happens when people start doing that is what you find out is people don’t know enough about the Greek language to tell you what the Greek words mean, and you don’t know enough about it to find out about it either, so you wind up everybody being confused and led into error.
“Now when he says they’re going to be punished with everlasting destruction, come with me one verse that will settle the thing. Luke 1:33.
“Talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel’s appeared to Mary and told her she’s going to be the mother of the humanity of Christ and he says to her in verse 32.
“What does forever mean? It means no end. Well in the verse eons of eons means ‘no end!’ Eph. 3:21. How long do all ages last? World without end. When he said all ages, he’s not talking about all of them until they end. He’s talking about the fact they’re not going to end. It’s going to be world without end.
“If you come back to Isaiah 45 it’s a concept that comes out of the Hebrew bible. Isaiah 45:17. So how long is everlasting? It’s without end. Isaiah 23, just in case you have a problem with that word ‘world,’ there’s more than one way that term world can be used.
“We can talk about the world and sometimes be talking about the earth, but most of the time we’re not. We’re talking about the activity of life on the earth during a period of time, which would be an age.
“You talk about the world of sports. Is there a planet called sports? No, you know that. The world of politics, economics, we’re talking about the cosmos, the system of sports. The system of economics.
“Isaiah 23:17. There the term world is obviously not a reference to the planet. It’s a reference to something taking place on the planet. The planet is the face of the earth. So when you see the word ‘world’ in your Bible, don’t just immediately assume it’s talking about the planet. It can be also be talking about the world on the face of the planet. In other words, the organization of the kingdoms of the world; the organized affairs of the governmental systems that are on the earth.
“So when he talks about world without end, being without end is ‘it doesn’t ever stop.’ There will always be the organized universe and it’s going to last forever. And the ‘without end’ the ‘eon of the eon,’ the forever means it never stops. It means it’s going to go on forever; it’s going to be an everlasting salvation.
“Another way people try to take eternal and say that it’s not forever is to say that when you die ‘the everlasting destruction’ is that they don’t exist anymore.
“In Matthew 25:41, Jesus is talking about people who are judged out of the tribulation. How long does that fire last? Forever because it’s everlasting! It’s not going to be annihilation. Verse 46: annihilation means the punishment is over. It’s gone because you’re gone.
*****
“With the skins God covered Adam and Eve with the clothing. There’s a two-step process. One, God went and sacrificed the animal. Then He came to Adam and Eve and said, ‘Here’s the clothing.’ Adam and Eve had to willingly accept the clothing and put it on. God provided it.
“Until He skinned it and brought it, there was no provision for Adam to have his nakedness covered. But had Adam not accepted the clothing, he’d have still stood naked with the clothing at his feet.
"It would have been like he told Cain, ‘Sin lies at the door. The answer’s right there but you got to put it on.’ So there’s really a two-step process there in the first example of redemption. There’s the shedding of blood. God did that but then they had to accept the covering and put it on.”
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Undiminished deity
I guess I should be happy and let it go. I got a call a half-hour ago from a journalist friend who told me I was on Page 4 of the front section of the Sunday “Chicago Tribune.” I looked at the piece online a few minutes ago and was dismayed to see I came off, in my opinion, as quite inadequate.
*****
The Spirit’s going to come; the New Covenant is going to be inaugurated and Christ says, in essence, "the Father’s going to be in you and you’re going to be in me and I’m going to be in you and we’re going to be one!"
Jordan explains it: “He’s completely identified with the Believing remnant. I John says, ‘As he is so are we in the world.’ You see right here in the heart of a passage (John 14) where He’s doing exactly what Isaiah does. The servant back there is Israel with her Messiah, who is the REAL servant! And Israel is sharing His status because in Him they have His identity. In 14:28, He’s magnifying the one whose will He’s come to do and His owning His place as the servant; ‘yea, the suffering servant of the Lord.’
“It’s the silliest thing in the world to think you’re denying the deity of Christ when you’re recognizing Him as the man Christ Jesus. Because it’s just as damning to deny to His full and authentic humanity as it is to deny His true and undiminished deity.
“You ask, ‘But how can true and undiminished deity live as real authentic humanity?’ Well, they can’t in the absolute. So God, the undiminished and true deity, willingly chooses not to make His reputation as God an issue but to submit Himself to the will of His Father and take on our limitations of humanity. 5:8. He never ceases to be a son. Somebody says, ‘Well, when Jesus became man, did He cease to be God?’ How could that happen?!’ How could you quit being God if you’re God? Can you quit being a human?
“Jesus didn’t quit being who He was; He just became somebody who He wasn’t previously. He didn’t quit being God. He became man. ‘And being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them who obey him.’ Now that’s an interesting verse.
“He learned obedience. How can God learn obedience? God doesn’t. Who learns it? The man Christ Jesus. You see He was more than God; He took on your humanity, but because He was God He voluntarily limited the exercise of His status and capacity as God so that He could enter into the status and capacity of your human limitations. He demonstrated Himself in His earthly ministry to be God. He raised the dead. He forgave sin. Only God can do that but He didn’t do it independently on His own. He did it in response to the will of His Father.
“Christ submits His activity to the instructions and plan of His Father, and in so doing demonstrates how we can experience God living in us because when Paul says, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,’ He wasn’t telling us to go back and follow the Jewish program Jesus is teaching back in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He’s saying, ‘You see how He lived in His humanity; that’s how He wants to live in your humanity.’ You and I are to live in complete dependency on the will of our Father. Where right division comes in is to figure out what that will is, but the issue is the same.
“When He says, ‘My father is greater than I,’ He’s not talking in any way about the nature of the godhead. He’s talking about the role that He as the servant has come to play. And He said, ‘If you have been listening, I’m being submissive to the plan of the Father and that plan goes all the way back to Genesis 1.’
“John 14:29 . . . I love that! Jesus Christ didn’t stand around blowing His own horn, running around saying, ‘I’m God; woo, look at me!’ All He did to prove who He was was prophecy ahead of time about the things that are going to happen in the face of eye witnesses and let them see it happen. He demonstrated Himself over and over again, even here at the very last moment of His life with His apostles, to be that prophet like unto Moses; to be the one who has come to be God’s spokesman.
“John 13:19. He told them at the beginning of the conversation. What did He want them to believe? That He’s the Messiah. That He’s that divinely appointed, accredited, promised qualified Savior.
*****
“In the instructions given to the nation Israel, the tithe is an integral part of the life of that nation. And there are three basic tithes that an Israeli was to give. There were a few other taxes they had and then they gave voluntary gifts. A tithe is compulsory. You remember Malachi 3 he says, ‘Will a man rob God? And they said wherewith have we robbed thee?’ And he says, in tithes and offerings.
“The tithe belonged to the Lord and when they didn’t give it to Him they
were robbing Him. Well that comes out of Leviticus 27:30.
“In Numbers 18 he tells them to tithe of the seed of the land (the agriculture, the vegetable kingdom), of the oil (vegetable kingdom) and of the animal kingdom (their flocks) and then salt (the mineral kingdom). All of creation Israel was to tithe back to the Lord what they got out of it. And they were to give a tenth of their gross production. It was the first ten percent of the gross income they had from any source.
“Numbers 18:21. What happens is all 12 tribes of Israel, 10 percent of the gross income they have of each family is to be taken and given to the Levites to support the levitical tribe. Why? Reason is the Levites don’t get an inheritance in the land. Could they grow a crop or have a business? No. they were chosen out to work in the temple, to be the priests, to be God’s representatives. They are the priesthood in Israel.
“Israel was a theocracy with God as their king and He ran the nation
through His word and through the priests. That’s why you have this royal nation with a royal priesthood. That’s why Jesus is a priest on the throne. Those two offices were combined together and the government of the nation Israel worked itself out through the tribe of Levi. So the tithe was an income tax to support the government of the nation.
“By the way, remember in Leviticus 27 where he talks about that ‘fifth part added’? A fifth part is 20 percent. If the Levites got 10 percent of 12 tribes how much of the gross national product did they get? What’s ten times 12? They got 120 percent. That was their reward for the sacrifice they were making; the service they were rendering as the nation and the priesthood.
“By the way, when they would bring a sacrifice—produce, animals—some of it was dedicated to the Lord in the burnt offering. But the rest of it the priest got that too. So the storehouse is sort of like the temple treasury where they kept the goods.
“They were carrying on the same thing Abraham did back there. What did Abraham do with Melchizedek? He was paying a tribute to the king and royal priest. By the way, where was the temple and the tabernacle? In Jerusalem. He tells them over and over that you bring you offerings to the door of the tabernacle in the place that I’ll tell you. And after the wilderness wanderings He brought it over and He said, ‘I’ve chosen Jerusalem to be the place where I’m going to put my name.’ And so they would bring it there.
“Now, there were two other tithes. Deut. 14:22. Household. This is a tithe you’re going to keep for yourself and you’re going to eat. You’re going to consume it. Where are you going to eat it? In Jerusalem.”
*****
The Spirit’s going to come; the New Covenant is going to be inaugurated and Christ says, in essence, "the Father’s going to be in you and you’re going to be in me and I’m going to be in you and we’re going to be one!"
Jordan explains it: “He’s completely identified with the Believing remnant. I John says, ‘As he is so are we in the world.’ You see right here in the heart of a passage (John 14) where He’s doing exactly what Isaiah does. The servant back there is Israel with her Messiah, who is the REAL servant! And Israel is sharing His status because in Him they have His identity. In 14:28, He’s magnifying the one whose will He’s come to do and His owning His place as the servant; ‘yea, the suffering servant of the Lord.’
“It’s the silliest thing in the world to think you’re denying the deity of Christ when you’re recognizing Him as the man Christ Jesus. Because it’s just as damning to deny to His full and authentic humanity as it is to deny His true and undiminished deity.
“You ask, ‘But how can true and undiminished deity live as real authentic humanity?’ Well, they can’t in the absolute. So God, the undiminished and true deity, willingly chooses not to make His reputation as God an issue but to submit Himself to the will of His Father and take on our limitations of humanity. 5:8. He never ceases to be a son. Somebody says, ‘Well, when Jesus became man, did He cease to be God?’ How could that happen?!’ How could you quit being God if you’re God? Can you quit being a human?
“Jesus didn’t quit being who He was; He just became somebody who He wasn’t previously. He didn’t quit being God. He became man. ‘And being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them who obey him.’ Now that’s an interesting verse.
“He learned obedience. How can God learn obedience? God doesn’t. Who learns it? The man Christ Jesus. You see He was more than God; He took on your humanity, but because He was God He voluntarily limited the exercise of His status and capacity as God so that He could enter into the status and capacity of your human limitations. He demonstrated Himself in His earthly ministry to be God. He raised the dead. He forgave sin. Only God can do that but He didn’t do it independently on His own. He did it in response to the will of His Father.
“Christ submits His activity to the instructions and plan of His Father, and in so doing demonstrates how we can experience God living in us because when Paul says, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,’ He wasn’t telling us to go back and follow the Jewish program Jesus is teaching back in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He’s saying, ‘You see how He lived in His humanity; that’s how He wants to live in your humanity.’ You and I are to live in complete dependency on the will of our Father. Where right division comes in is to figure out what that will is, but the issue is the same.
“When He says, ‘My father is greater than I,’ He’s not talking in any way about the nature of the godhead. He’s talking about the role that He as the servant has come to play. And He said, ‘If you have been listening, I’m being submissive to the plan of the Father and that plan goes all the way back to Genesis 1.’
“John 14:29 . . . I love that! Jesus Christ didn’t stand around blowing His own horn, running around saying, ‘I’m God; woo, look at me!’ All He did to prove who He was was prophecy ahead of time about the things that are going to happen in the face of eye witnesses and let them see it happen. He demonstrated Himself over and over again, even here at the very last moment of His life with His apostles, to be that prophet like unto Moses; to be the one who has come to be God’s spokesman.
“John 13:19. He told them at the beginning of the conversation. What did He want them to believe? That He’s the Messiah. That He’s that divinely appointed, accredited, promised qualified Savior.
*****
“In the instructions given to the nation Israel, the tithe is an integral part of the life of that nation. And there are three basic tithes that an Israeli was to give. There were a few other taxes they had and then they gave voluntary gifts. A tithe is compulsory. You remember Malachi 3 he says, ‘Will a man rob God? And they said wherewith have we robbed thee?’ And he says, in tithes and offerings.
“The tithe belonged to the Lord and when they didn’t give it to Him they
were robbing Him. Well that comes out of Leviticus 27:30.
“In Numbers 18 he tells them to tithe of the seed of the land (the agriculture, the vegetable kingdom), of the oil (vegetable kingdom) and of the animal kingdom (their flocks) and then salt (the mineral kingdom). All of creation Israel was to tithe back to the Lord what they got out of it. And they were to give a tenth of their gross production. It was the first ten percent of the gross income they had from any source.
“Numbers 18:21. What happens is all 12 tribes of Israel, 10 percent of the gross income they have of each family is to be taken and given to the Levites to support the levitical tribe. Why? Reason is the Levites don’t get an inheritance in the land. Could they grow a crop or have a business? No. they were chosen out to work in the temple, to be the priests, to be God’s representatives. They are the priesthood in Israel.
“Israel was a theocracy with God as their king and He ran the nation
through His word and through the priests. That’s why you have this royal nation with a royal priesthood. That’s why Jesus is a priest on the throne. Those two offices were combined together and the government of the nation Israel worked itself out through the tribe of Levi. So the tithe was an income tax to support the government of the nation.
“By the way, remember in Leviticus 27 where he talks about that ‘fifth part added’? A fifth part is 20 percent. If the Levites got 10 percent of 12 tribes how much of the gross national product did they get? What’s ten times 12? They got 120 percent. That was their reward for the sacrifice they were making; the service they were rendering as the nation and the priesthood.
“By the way, when they would bring a sacrifice—produce, animals—some of it was dedicated to the Lord in the burnt offering. But the rest of it the priest got that too. So the storehouse is sort of like the temple treasury where they kept the goods.
“They were carrying on the same thing Abraham did back there. What did Abraham do with Melchizedek? He was paying a tribute to the king and royal priest. By the way, where was the temple and the tabernacle? In Jerusalem. He tells them over and over that you bring you offerings to the door of the tabernacle in the place that I’ll tell you. And after the wilderness wanderings He brought it over and He said, ‘I’ve chosen Jerusalem to be the place where I’m going to put my name.’ And so they would bring it there.
“Now, there were two other tithes. Deut. 14:22. Household. This is a tithe you’re going to keep for yourself and you’re going to eat. You’re going to consume it. Where are you going to eat it? In Jerusalem.”
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Delighting in 'git-er done'
The little pot of manna put in the ark represented God’s provisions in preserving the nation Israel. They’d broken the law but God brings life back to them (the budding of the rod) and gives them the provisions of ‘the bread of life.’
The manna is a testimony to God’s preservation of them.
Exodus 16: 33 says, "And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations." Verse 36 goes on to explain, "Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah."
Jordan says, “They put a tithe of the manna into the ark. That tenth part, or tithe, had a connection with God preserving that holy seed through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. It’s connected with God preserving Israel through the tribulation into her kingdom.”
*****
John 14: 30 says, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
[31] But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence...
Jordan explains, "I’m gonna be gone. He knows He’s going to die the next day, then be raised up and spend only 40 days with them before going away but He’s going to send the Holy Spirit. He’s in essence turning them over to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And He says, ‘Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.’
“That expression ‘my peace.’ Paul uses a wonderful phrase: ‘The peace of God,’ and that’s what that verse is talking about. Peace is that relaxed mental attitude of faith. It’s that inner-man tranquility that results from a total dependence on the will and the Word of the Father. That’s exactly what Christ is doing here.
“Watch how it happens. Verse 28: ‘Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.’
“So that everybody understands that I’m totally committed to doing what the Father says to do. Because I love him. He already told them, ‘If you love me keep my commandments.’ I’m living in complete total dependence on the will of my Father, is what He’s saying. Paul has a great phrase for that—he calls it ‘the faith of Christ.’
“He entered into a plan and an agreement with His Father that that’s what He would do and said, ‘Now my peace I leave you.’ He’s completely at peace. He has complete inner tranquility even though He knows the agony He’s going to face.
"In fact, when He says in verse 30 and then 31, He’s saying in the vernacular of our day, ‘Let’s git-er done . . . Let’s get on with it! The Adversary the prince of this world has come to fulfill the conflict of Gen 3:15 where the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan will be in personal hand-to-hand combat. That day has arrived, so let’s go!’
“Because He’s got nothing . . . there’s ‘no weakness in me at all. I’m ready to go.’
“He knows about what the Scripture says is going to happen to Him and yet He doesn’t hold back. In Hebrews 12 He says, ‘Who for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.’ He had in His mind an understanding of what God had promised Him and believed it and trusted it confidently. There’s no rebellion, no hesitation; He has that complete inner tranquility.
“When Paul talks in Philippians 4:7 about the ‘peace of God,’ that’s the peace that BELONGS to God. In Romans 5, he talks about ‘being justified by faith we have peace WITH God.’ That’s us and God; there’s not an argument between us anymore. God is no longer against me. There’s a cessation of hostility. No cause for God to be angry with me anymore.
“But the peace OF God is something different than that. That’s the peace that God Himself has. God is at peace with His own will. He’s at peace with His own plans. He’s at peace with His own word. And God’s peace; that total tranquility and inner calmness over what He’s doing, He takes that and gives it to me when I trust Him. And I can live, and Jesus lived, in complete dependence on His Father’s will and that gave Him that inner man tranquility that results from that total dependence.
“By the way, when he talks about the peace WITH God and the peace OF God, Melchizedek was the king of righteousness and the king of peace. Righteousness is first, peace is second. Because peace can only be based on righteousness; things have to righteously be dealt with. So you have peace with God where the righteousness of God is satisfied; then you can have the peace OF God.
“James 3:17 tells Israel, ‘But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’ First you have the righteousness, then you have the peace.
“Isaiah 32:15 (‘Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest’) talks about the work of righteousness is peace. Righteousness has to do with being right. God’s word is right and I’m in relationship with it and the peace comes out of His righteousness.
“Verse 27 is a great illustration of the peace of God. Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Here’s God living in our humanity and He has complete and total peace—inner tranquility, inner calmness, a relaxed mental attitude in his heart that results in that faith, that total dependence on the Word of His Father.
Verse 28. Ye have heard, and By the way, that’s how you don’t let your heart be troubled. You know, most trouble comes from fear. There are really two fundamental emotions that we deal with in all of life—one is love (drawing us toward things) and one is fear (pushing us away).
“If you take a list, for example, I Timothy 3 where Paul talks about if a man desires the office of a bishop and he gives you a long list of characteristics that this what a mature godly saint’s life would look like. When he does that, he identifies for a man a lot of the issues you’re going to have to deal with and have straight in your life.
“I took those things one time and listed them out and began to try to put them into categories and you know more things in that list in I Timothy 3 about what a man has to face and deal with to become a mature godly Christian man, the one category that had more things under it than any other was the issue of anger!
“Kind of shocked me. I studied that 2-3 times to see if I got it right. Men especially have to deal with the issue of anger and the reason for that I suppose is only by pride comes contention. And men have that issue.
“But when you study anger what you discover is almost always anger is a
disguise for fear. Because you get angry and when you get down to the bottom of where did the anger come from, it’s because you’re afraid of something either to lose or going to happen. Fear is a debilitating thing.
“In this context, the fear of men kept people from trusting and believing even when they saw the truth of God’s word by seeing the Messiah in their midst.
“ Jesus said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’ What does your heart do? With a heart man believes. ‘Neither be afraid.’ Without having that turmoil down inside just have the ability to, ‘Ahhh, let it hang out. Relax inside. Relax in the truth of God’s Word about who Jesus Christ is and what He’s accomplished.
“Why should you trust it? Look at me; I’m trusting it. Verse 28. You heard it. You heard me tell you. You know why you ought to have your heart trust me and not be afraid? Because you’ve heard my word. The path to peace is dependence on God’s Word. It’s to trust in what God has said to you. ‘If you love me you would rejoice because I said I go to my Father. Now why is He going to go to the Father?
“He’s going away to receive the kingdom. Remember the parallel in Luke 19? The passage in Daniel 7 where the son of man comes before the ancient of days to receive the kingdom and the power and the dominion? He goes there to receive the kingdom and to return.
“Philippians 2:5 says, ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus.’ This is a truth that Paul followers should be very clear about and should rejoice in. Paul goes on, ‘Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
[7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
[8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’
“He made himself of no reputation. Who did that to Him? He did it to Himself. Voluntarily He took up a position and took upon him the form of a servant. Though He’s equal with the Father He chooses to function in relationship to the Father as a servant. Did He have to? No. He willingly chose to.
“The next verse says, ‘He humbled Himself and became obedient.’ What does a servant do? He does what his master, his lord, tells him to do. So when Jesus Christ says ‘the Father is great than I’ it’s in relationship to Him coming as a servant.
“What He’s doing is owning His place as a servant. Verse 31: ‘I’m going to go do the commandments of my father’ and he’s magnifying the one who sent Him: ‘I’m doing the will of my Father.’
“Now that Jehovah was going to send a son to be a servant is in Isaiah 42:1, which looks forward to the Messiah coming: ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.’
“There’s God the Father describing the coming Messiah. He said it there at the baptism: ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.’ I’ve put my Spirit upon Him. That’s how John is told in John 1: ‘You’ll know who He is because you’ll see the Spirit descending on Him. He’ll come and fulfill that passage.’
“He’s going to enable the nation Israel to be exactly the channel of blessing God chose them to be. A blessing to the nations. Verse 6: ‘I Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and keep thee and give thee for a covenant of people.’
“You know where Israel’s going to get her covenant? It’s going to be in Christ. That’s why in John 15 He’s going to say, ‘I am the vine.’ It’s only Israel in Christ. He’s going to make the covenant that allows them to be who God has chosen them to be; enables them to be that. He’s the servant.”
The manna is a testimony to God’s preservation of them.
Exodus 16: 33 says, "And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations." Verse 36 goes on to explain, "Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah."
Jordan says, “They put a tithe of the manna into the ark. That tenth part, or tithe, had a connection with God preserving that holy seed through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. It’s connected with God preserving Israel through the tribulation into her kingdom.”
*****
John 14: 30 says, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
[31] But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence...
Jordan explains, "I’m gonna be gone. He knows He’s going to die the next day, then be raised up and spend only 40 days with them before going away but He’s going to send the Holy Spirit. He’s in essence turning them over to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And He says, ‘Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.’
“That expression ‘my peace.’ Paul uses a wonderful phrase: ‘The peace of God,’ and that’s what that verse is talking about. Peace is that relaxed mental attitude of faith. It’s that inner-man tranquility that results from a total dependence on the will and the Word of the Father. That’s exactly what Christ is doing here.
“Watch how it happens. Verse 28: ‘Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.’
“So that everybody understands that I’m totally committed to doing what the Father says to do. Because I love him. He already told them, ‘If you love me keep my commandments.’ I’m living in complete total dependence on the will of my Father, is what He’s saying. Paul has a great phrase for that—he calls it ‘the faith of Christ.’
“He entered into a plan and an agreement with His Father that that’s what He would do and said, ‘Now my peace I leave you.’ He’s completely at peace. He has complete inner tranquility even though He knows the agony He’s going to face.
"In fact, when He says in verse 30 and then 31, He’s saying in the vernacular of our day, ‘Let’s git-er done . . . Let’s get on with it! The Adversary the prince of this world has come to fulfill the conflict of Gen 3:15 where the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan will be in personal hand-to-hand combat. That day has arrived, so let’s go!’
“Because He’s got nothing . . . there’s ‘no weakness in me at all. I’m ready to go.’
“He knows about what the Scripture says is going to happen to Him and yet He doesn’t hold back. In Hebrews 12 He says, ‘Who for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.’ He had in His mind an understanding of what God had promised Him and believed it and trusted it confidently. There’s no rebellion, no hesitation; He has that complete inner tranquility.
“When Paul talks in Philippians 4:7 about the ‘peace of God,’ that’s the peace that BELONGS to God. In Romans 5, he talks about ‘being justified by faith we have peace WITH God.’ That’s us and God; there’s not an argument between us anymore. God is no longer against me. There’s a cessation of hostility. No cause for God to be angry with me anymore.
“But the peace OF God is something different than that. That’s the peace that God Himself has. God is at peace with His own will. He’s at peace with His own plans. He’s at peace with His own word. And God’s peace; that total tranquility and inner calmness over what He’s doing, He takes that and gives it to me when I trust Him. And I can live, and Jesus lived, in complete dependence on His Father’s will and that gave Him that inner man tranquility that results from that total dependence.
“By the way, when he talks about the peace WITH God and the peace OF God, Melchizedek was the king of righteousness and the king of peace. Righteousness is first, peace is second. Because peace can only be based on righteousness; things have to righteously be dealt with. So you have peace with God where the righteousness of God is satisfied; then you can have the peace OF God.
“James 3:17 tells Israel, ‘But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’ First you have the righteousness, then you have the peace.
“Isaiah 32:15 (‘Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest’) talks about the work of righteousness is peace. Righteousness has to do with being right. God’s word is right and I’m in relationship with it and the peace comes out of His righteousness.
“Verse 27 is a great illustration of the peace of God. Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Here’s God living in our humanity and He has complete and total peace—inner tranquility, inner calmness, a relaxed mental attitude in his heart that results in that faith, that total dependence on the Word of His Father.
Verse 28. Ye have heard, and By the way, that’s how you don’t let your heart be troubled. You know, most trouble comes from fear. There are really two fundamental emotions that we deal with in all of life—one is love (drawing us toward things) and one is fear (pushing us away).
“If you take a list, for example, I Timothy 3 where Paul talks about if a man desires the office of a bishop and he gives you a long list of characteristics that this what a mature godly saint’s life would look like. When he does that, he identifies for a man a lot of the issues you’re going to have to deal with and have straight in your life.
“I took those things one time and listed them out and began to try to put them into categories and you know more things in that list in I Timothy 3 about what a man has to face and deal with to become a mature godly Christian man, the one category that had more things under it than any other was the issue of anger!
“Kind of shocked me. I studied that 2-3 times to see if I got it right. Men especially have to deal with the issue of anger and the reason for that I suppose is only by pride comes contention. And men have that issue.
“But when you study anger what you discover is almost always anger is a
disguise for fear. Because you get angry and when you get down to the bottom of where did the anger come from, it’s because you’re afraid of something either to lose or going to happen. Fear is a debilitating thing.
“In this context, the fear of men kept people from trusting and believing even when they saw the truth of God’s word by seeing the Messiah in their midst.
“ Jesus said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’ What does your heart do? With a heart man believes. ‘Neither be afraid.’ Without having that turmoil down inside just have the ability to, ‘Ahhh, let it hang out. Relax inside. Relax in the truth of God’s Word about who Jesus Christ is and what He’s accomplished.
“Why should you trust it? Look at me; I’m trusting it. Verse 28. You heard it. You heard me tell you. You know why you ought to have your heart trust me and not be afraid? Because you’ve heard my word. The path to peace is dependence on God’s Word. It’s to trust in what God has said to you. ‘If you love me you would rejoice because I said I go to my Father. Now why is He going to go to the Father?
“He’s going away to receive the kingdom. Remember the parallel in Luke 19? The passage in Daniel 7 where the son of man comes before the ancient of days to receive the kingdom and the power and the dominion? He goes there to receive the kingdom and to return.
“Philippians 2:5 says, ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus.’ This is a truth that Paul followers should be very clear about and should rejoice in. Paul goes on, ‘Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
[7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
[8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’
“He made himself of no reputation. Who did that to Him? He did it to Himself. Voluntarily He took up a position and took upon him the form of a servant. Though He’s equal with the Father He chooses to function in relationship to the Father as a servant. Did He have to? No. He willingly chose to.
“The next verse says, ‘He humbled Himself and became obedient.’ What does a servant do? He does what his master, his lord, tells him to do. So when Jesus Christ says ‘the Father is great than I’ it’s in relationship to Him coming as a servant.
“What He’s doing is owning His place as a servant. Verse 31: ‘I’m going to go do the commandments of my father’ and he’s magnifying the one who sent Him: ‘I’m doing the will of my Father.’
“Now that Jehovah was going to send a son to be a servant is in Isaiah 42:1, which looks forward to the Messiah coming: ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.’
“There’s God the Father describing the coming Messiah. He said it there at the baptism: ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.’ I’ve put my Spirit upon Him. That’s how John is told in John 1: ‘You’ll know who He is because you’ll see the Spirit descending on Him. He’ll come and fulfill that passage.’
“He’s going to enable the nation Israel to be exactly the channel of blessing God chose them to be. A blessing to the nations. Verse 6: ‘I Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and keep thee and give thee for a covenant of people.’
“You know where Israel’s going to get her covenant? It’s going to be in Christ. That’s why in John 15 He’s going to say, ‘I am the vine.’ It’s only Israel in Christ. He’s going to make the covenant that allows them to be who God has chosen them to be; enables them to be that. He’s the servant.”
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
'Come on in!'
John 14:21-22 says, “ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?”
Jordan explains, “The last thing there about manifesting myself to him. How is he going to do that? He’s going to go away. You remember Thomas said, ‘If I can’t put my finger in his hands in his side I’m not going to believe.’ So what did Jesus do? He stood in front on him and said, ‘Okay, Tom, touch me. Here, put your hand in.’
“But there’s going to come a time when Jesus is going to go away and He won’t be there to do that. He’s not going to appear to them in visions. But His Spirit is going to be there and the Spirit is going to reveal Christ to them; He’s going to be (verse 17) the Spirit of truth. And it’s going to be through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that He’s going to communicate some words to them that will reveal some things that He has for them that He hasn’t yet been able to say to them.
*****
“You can see from verse 22 that Judas isn’t getting what He’s saying. Don’t be surprised, though, because we’ve already seen some other guys in this chapter who weren’t quite getting it! And Christ is giving them some information now that, later on, they will get. At this point, He’s just putting it on the record for them here so that later on, if you look down at verse 26, ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’
“They’re later on going to be able to remember back to these things and that He did say it to them and then they’ll have that in their understanding. So Judas is asking Him the obvious question. What Judas missed is there in verse 21: ‘He it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.’
“But He’s not going to manifest Himself to the world and He’s already told them that in the verse before that so Judas is saying, ‘Lord, how is it you’re going to manifest yourself to us and not the world? Why aren’t you going to manifest yourself to the world and you’re going to do it just to us?’
“What Judas is missing here is the fact Christ is making a distinction. There’s a division going on. There’s a separation. It’s for those ‘born of God.’ How do you get ‘born of God?’ Chapter 3 says you’re born of the Spirit.’ So the Spirit’s going to come. There’s some people in Israel born of the Spirit and they’re going to be different from other people who aren’t born of the Spirit and there’s a distinction there.
*****
“It’s interesting that there’s more than one apostle named Judas. There’s Judas Iscariot (which means a ‘man of Carioth’—that is he’s someone who came from the southern kingdom) but the other Judas (Luke 6:16) is the brother of James.
“Now if you contract the name Judas down, what do you think it would sound like? Jude. Jude 1 says, ‘Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.’ Judas, the brother of James, is the one who wrote the Book of Jude. So again, not every book in the New Testament is written by an apostle. For example, Luke was not an apostle. But most of them are.
“Judas the apostle missed the point that there’s got to be a separation: ‘But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.’
“And I’ve said to you all the way through the Book of John, the issue in the Book of John is He gave power to become. The focus is on God communicating to the believing remnant in Israel the spiritual qualifications to be His people. It takes more than just the physical to be related to God. Israel had that. They were His chosen nation in the earth as no other nation could be.
“But it wasn’t enough to physically be a descendant of God’s man, Abraham, because he was also a descendant of Adam. With Adam there came a spiritual problem of alienation from God. With Abraham the Gentiles were alienated from God and one nation kept relationships, but that nation still had a spiritual problem and needed to be spiritually qualified.
“So that spiritual issue of having the spiritual capacity and power to become the sons of God is what the book of John focuses on in particular.
“Jesus said in verse 23, ‘If a man love me he will keep my words.’ Commandments are instructions given by words. By communicating in talk. ‘If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him. And we will come unto him and make our abode with him.’ They’re saying, ‘We’re going to come and have fellowship with him and we’re going to abide with him.’ Someone who makes their abode with you—that’s someone you welcome into your home!"
*****
“There’s an illustration of that in Revelation 3. I use this because this verse is so often misused. The Lord Jesus Christ sends messages to these seven churches listed. The last church is the church of Laodicea. Each one of these churches represents a special problem that the believing remnant in Israel will face in ‘the last days.’ Not just the problem--the solution to the problem is given.
“Rev. 3:20 says, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ James said the Judge is at the door. He’s coming. He’s standing at the door and knocking. He wants to come in.
“There’s a famous painting of this verse with Jesus Christ standing at the door of a cottage. Now the painting is by one of the Renaissance Italian painters where you have a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus standing in front of you. The painting is the artist’s rendition and it’s not very true, but there’s a significant thing about the painting.
“If you look at the door, you’ll see there’s no door handle on the outside. The door has to be opened from the inside. And there’s a great truth in that. Because the way Jesus comes in is when the inhabitants open the door. And that’s what’s going on here.
“ ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice AND open the door.’ He doesn’t barge in, snatch the door off the hinges and stomp in. He has to be invited in. It has to be opened.
“ ‘I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me.’ Now when He comes in, and then He sups with him, you see how He says, ‘I will come into him’? He just told them that in John 14: ‘I go away and yet I will come again. And when I come, I’m going to come and receive you unto myself. And when I come I will sup with you.’
“That word ‘sup’ is shorthand for the word ‘supper.’ Luke talks about how after they supped, He took the cup. The idea is, ‘I’ll come in and when I come in, I’m not just going to sit there; we’re going to have a meal! I’m going to fellowship with you. I’m going to enter into a fellowship ‘and he with me.’ We’re going to enter into a mutual fellowship!’
*****
“ ‘To him that overcome my throne his throne.’ Jesus goes away, sits at the Father’s right hand until His enemies are made His foot stool, then He comes back, sets up His kingdom, ‘sit on His throne with all the holy angels with Him (Matthew 25:31) and shall sit upon the throne of his glory.’
“Then what’s going to happen with the 12 apostles? In the regeneration, they’re going to sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. They’re going to go into that kingdom with Him and rule and reign and have a fellowship—a communion sitting around the table .
“When you sit around the Father’s table, the idea is we communicate but there’s a family relationship. I don’t know about you, but most of us don’t have family meals at the end of the day every day and talk about what went on. There’s a deep bond in that.
"That’s the idea of sitting at the table, fellowshipping, delighting in what one another’s doing. Delighting in being able to tell the events of the day. There’s fellowship together with one another!’"
Jordan explains, “The last thing there about manifesting myself to him. How is he going to do that? He’s going to go away. You remember Thomas said, ‘If I can’t put my finger in his hands in his side I’m not going to believe.’ So what did Jesus do? He stood in front on him and said, ‘Okay, Tom, touch me. Here, put your hand in.’
“But there’s going to come a time when Jesus is going to go away and He won’t be there to do that. He’s not going to appear to them in visions. But His Spirit is going to be there and the Spirit is going to reveal Christ to them; He’s going to be (verse 17) the Spirit of truth. And it’s going to be through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that He’s going to communicate some words to them that will reveal some things that He has for them that He hasn’t yet been able to say to them.
*****
“You can see from verse 22 that Judas isn’t getting what He’s saying. Don’t be surprised, though, because we’ve already seen some other guys in this chapter who weren’t quite getting it! And Christ is giving them some information now that, later on, they will get. At this point, He’s just putting it on the record for them here so that later on, if you look down at verse 26, ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’
“They’re later on going to be able to remember back to these things and that He did say it to them and then they’ll have that in their understanding. So Judas is asking Him the obvious question. What Judas missed is there in verse 21: ‘He it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.’
“But He’s not going to manifest Himself to the world and He’s already told them that in the verse before that so Judas is saying, ‘Lord, how is it you’re going to manifest yourself to us and not the world? Why aren’t you going to manifest yourself to the world and you’re going to do it just to us?’
“What Judas is missing here is the fact Christ is making a distinction. There’s a division going on. There’s a separation. It’s for those ‘born of God.’ How do you get ‘born of God?’ Chapter 3 says you’re born of the Spirit.’ So the Spirit’s going to come. There’s some people in Israel born of the Spirit and they’re going to be different from other people who aren’t born of the Spirit and there’s a distinction there.
*****
“It’s interesting that there’s more than one apostle named Judas. There’s Judas Iscariot (which means a ‘man of Carioth’—that is he’s someone who came from the southern kingdom) but the other Judas (Luke 6:16) is the brother of James.
“Now if you contract the name Judas down, what do you think it would sound like? Jude. Jude 1 says, ‘Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.’ Judas, the brother of James, is the one who wrote the Book of Jude. So again, not every book in the New Testament is written by an apostle. For example, Luke was not an apostle. But most of them are.
“Judas the apostle missed the point that there’s got to be a separation: ‘But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.’
“And I’ve said to you all the way through the Book of John, the issue in the Book of John is He gave power to become. The focus is on God communicating to the believing remnant in Israel the spiritual qualifications to be His people. It takes more than just the physical to be related to God. Israel had that. They were His chosen nation in the earth as no other nation could be.
“But it wasn’t enough to physically be a descendant of God’s man, Abraham, because he was also a descendant of Adam. With Adam there came a spiritual problem of alienation from God. With Abraham the Gentiles were alienated from God and one nation kept relationships, but that nation still had a spiritual problem and needed to be spiritually qualified.
“So that spiritual issue of having the spiritual capacity and power to become the sons of God is what the book of John focuses on in particular.
“Jesus said in verse 23, ‘If a man love me he will keep my words.’ Commandments are instructions given by words. By communicating in talk. ‘If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him. And we will come unto him and make our abode with him.’ They’re saying, ‘We’re going to come and have fellowship with him and we’re going to abide with him.’ Someone who makes their abode with you—that’s someone you welcome into your home!"
*****
“There’s an illustration of that in Revelation 3. I use this because this verse is so often misused. The Lord Jesus Christ sends messages to these seven churches listed. The last church is the church of Laodicea. Each one of these churches represents a special problem that the believing remnant in Israel will face in ‘the last days.’ Not just the problem--the solution to the problem is given.
“Rev. 3:20 says, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ James said the Judge is at the door. He’s coming. He’s standing at the door and knocking. He wants to come in.
“There’s a famous painting of this verse with Jesus Christ standing at the door of a cottage. Now the painting is by one of the Renaissance Italian painters where you have a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus standing in front of you. The painting is the artist’s rendition and it’s not very true, but there’s a significant thing about the painting.
“If you look at the door, you’ll see there’s no door handle on the outside. The door has to be opened from the inside. And there’s a great truth in that. Because the way Jesus comes in is when the inhabitants open the door. And that’s what’s going on here.
“ ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice AND open the door.’ He doesn’t barge in, snatch the door off the hinges and stomp in. He has to be invited in. It has to be opened.
“ ‘I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me.’ Now when He comes in, and then He sups with him, you see how He says, ‘I will come into him’? He just told them that in John 14: ‘I go away and yet I will come again. And when I come, I’m going to come and receive you unto myself. And when I come I will sup with you.’
“That word ‘sup’ is shorthand for the word ‘supper.’ Luke talks about how after they supped, He took the cup. The idea is, ‘I’ll come in and when I come in, I’m not just going to sit there; we’re going to have a meal! I’m going to fellowship with you. I’m going to enter into a fellowship ‘and he with me.’ We’re going to enter into a mutual fellowship!’
*****
“ ‘To him that overcome my throne his throne.’ Jesus goes away, sits at the Father’s right hand until His enemies are made His foot stool, then He comes back, sets up His kingdom, ‘sit on His throne with all the holy angels with Him (Matthew 25:31) and shall sit upon the throne of his glory.’
“Then what’s going to happen with the 12 apostles? In the regeneration, they’re going to sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. They’re going to go into that kingdom with Him and rule and reign and have a fellowship—a communion sitting around the table .
“When you sit around the Father’s table, the idea is we communicate but there’s a family relationship. I don’t know about you, but most of us don’t have family meals at the end of the day every day and talk about what went on. There’s a deep bond in that.
"That’s the idea of sitting at the table, fellowshipping, delighting in what one another’s doing. Delighting in being able to tell the events of the day. There’s fellowship together with one another!’"
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Eternal perspective
One of the more valuable emotions is the emotion of contentment and, surprisingly, it is one that is learned!
Jordan confirms, “It’s that emotional stability. Rather than being up and down, over here over there, bouncing off like a golf ball on a tile bathroom, it’s emotional stability that comes from that renewed mind. ‘Dependence on Christ as enough.’ It comes from depending on Him as your life. And that gives you some stability and that’s what it is!”
Paul pleads in Philippians 1:8, “For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.”
Jordan says, “That verse has always struck me that Paul would have to tell them that; he’d actually have to call God to record that he loved them! There’s something in Paul’s psyche that wasn’t naturally gregarious or expressing of that, I suppose. It isn’t personality bound. That’s the point.
“There’s some people that just want to hug your neck all the time and you just feel loved around them because they’re just always expressive and there’s others who are a little more reserved. With the guy who wants to pat you on the back and glad hand you all the time; that isn’t necessarily love. And the person’s who a little more reserved isn’t necessarily holding it back. That verse right there demonstrates that.
“If you want a title for Philippians you put down Phil. 3:14 and you’ve got it because the book is about pressing toward the mark. Pressing toward that identity that God has given us in Christ for the prize of the high-calling. What’s the prize? ‘Christ in you the hope of glory.’ Having His life be your life. So it’s a wonderful epistle dealing with that.
“When he comes to the end of all of the discussion, and he focuses on this issue of contentment, that’s the goal to which all of the things in Philippians are bringing you. An emotional stability; it’s that deep inner peace, that sense of the supernatural sufficiency of who you are in Christ.
“That’s where the book of Philippians is designed to bring you in the details of your life. It’s not just a bunch of doctrine--we’re talking about the life that I live. The attitudes that I have and the relationships and my marriage to my home, my grandchildren, my job, my recreation life . . . In all of my relationships in all of my emotions.
“It’s that stability to live in all of that with an understanding of my dependence of Him being my life. Being enough. Being the treasure. Being ,‘For to me to live is Christ,’ and to die is just to bring that into ultimate reality.
“The Philippians developed personal compassion. They put the needs of others above the wants of themselves. (Verse 14). They developed a generous spirit because when you begin to release the very thing that consumes you (money, in this case); when you let it go you develop the ability to give. That destroys the compulsion to get because it’s the opposite of it. That happens when you do what verses 17-18’s talking about—you develop an eternal perspective.
“You come to the place where you realize your spiritual and financial decisions are literally joined at the hip. And that EVERY decision you make about things, relationships and money and emotions—all of those decisions are really spiritual decisions that have an eternal impact and they can bring honor and praise to God or can destroy your testimony.
“You see, our treasure—the thing we invest our talents, time and money to—reveals and directs our heart. You remember Jesus said that: ‘Where a man’s treasure is there will his heart be also.’ Now that’s a principle anywhere in the Bible.
“I learned a secret about that years ago. If there was an area in my life that I noticed needed attention. Maybe it was a neglected area. I learned that if I would take that area of my life and just begin to focus some of my time and my treasure toward it—start spending some money toward it. Maybe it’s your wife. Whatever it is. You know what, your heart will follow. Because your treasure directs your heart. It’s that powerful a thing!
“We unconsciously tell God what standard of living we’re willing to live at. What standard of relationships we’re willing to have. What standard of emotional life we’re willing to put up with. What standard of money we’re willing to accept. And then we impose that on this verse 19.”
Jordan confirms, “It’s that emotional stability. Rather than being up and down, over here over there, bouncing off like a golf ball on a tile bathroom, it’s emotional stability that comes from that renewed mind. ‘Dependence on Christ as enough.’ It comes from depending on Him as your life. And that gives you some stability and that’s what it is!”
Paul pleads in Philippians 1:8, “For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.”
Jordan says, “That verse has always struck me that Paul would have to tell them that; he’d actually have to call God to record that he loved them! There’s something in Paul’s psyche that wasn’t naturally gregarious or expressing of that, I suppose. It isn’t personality bound. That’s the point.
“There’s some people that just want to hug your neck all the time and you just feel loved around them because they’re just always expressive and there’s others who are a little more reserved. With the guy who wants to pat you on the back and glad hand you all the time; that isn’t necessarily love. And the person’s who a little more reserved isn’t necessarily holding it back. That verse right there demonstrates that.
“If you want a title for Philippians you put down Phil. 3:14 and you’ve got it because the book is about pressing toward the mark. Pressing toward that identity that God has given us in Christ for the prize of the high-calling. What’s the prize? ‘Christ in you the hope of glory.’ Having His life be your life. So it’s a wonderful epistle dealing with that.
“When he comes to the end of all of the discussion, and he focuses on this issue of contentment, that’s the goal to which all of the things in Philippians are bringing you. An emotional stability; it’s that deep inner peace, that sense of the supernatural sufficiency of who you are in Christ.
“That’s where the book of Philippians is designed to bring you in the details of your life. It’s not just a bunch of doctrine--we’re talking about the life that I live. The attitudes that I have and the relationships and my marriage to my home, my grandchildren, my job, my recreation life . . . In all of my relationships in all of my emotions.
“It’s that stability to live in all of that with an understanding of my dependence of Him being my life. Being enough. Being the treasure. Being ,‘For to me to live is Christ,’ and to die is just to bring that into ultimate reality.
“The Philippians developed personal compassion. They put the needs of others above the wants of themselves. (Verse 14). They developed a generous spirit because when you begin to release the very thing that consumes you (money, in this case); when you let it go you develop the ability to give. That destroys the compulsion to get because it’s the opposite of it. That happens when you do what verses 17-18’s talking about—you develop an eternal perspective.
“You come to the place where you realize your spiritual and financial decisions are literally joined at the hip. And that EVERY decision you make about things, relationships and money and emotions—all of those decisions are really spiritual decisions that have an eternal impact and they can bring honor and praise to God or can destroy your testimony.
“You see, our treasure—the thing we invest our talents, time and money to—reveals and directs our heart. You remember Jesus said that: ‘Where a man’s treasure is there will his heart be also.’ Now that’s a principle anywhere in the Bible.
“I learned a secret about that years ago. If there was an area in my life that I noticed needed attention. Maybe it was a neglected area. I learned that if I would take that area of my life and just begin to focus some of my time and my treasure toward it—start spending some money toward it. Maybe it’s your wife. Whatever it is. You know what, your heart will follow. Because your treasure directs your heart. It’s that powerful a thing!
“We unconsciously tell God what standard of living we’re willing to live at. What standard of relationships we’re willing to have. What standard of emotional life we’re willing to put up with. What standard of money we’re willing to accept. And then we impose that on this verse 19.”
Friday, December 2, 2011
Back into the recesses
Revelation 20:13 says, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”
Death and hell are cast into the “lake of fire.” Physical death and spiritual death are cast into the lake which is the “second death.”
Jordan explains, “When he talks about the sea, that’s a little bit harder part of that verse. You say, ‘Is that like when Osama bin Laden died, they threw him in the Indian Ocean and crabs ate his body?’ Well, it’d be kind of a strange reference if it was.
“When he talks about the sea, it’s like that verse back in Exodus 15: ‘The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea.’ What he did with Pharaoh is a picture of what he’s going to do with Satan and the sea.
“That deep up there and that deep down there is represented by the sea and that stuff in Job 9 about the chambers of the south down at the bottom (where the lake of fire is down at the bottom of the universe).
“That verse about the sea is a reference to Jude 6 when he’s talking about the judgment of the angels. And those angels are kept in chains of darkness awaiting the great day of judgment. In other words, not just lost men and women are judged here, but the loss of the angelic creation also find their judgment here.
“So they face this great white throne. Solomon builds a house up here that has this great white throne on it. The parallel is Jerusalem here on the earth and up north up here in the universe . . . by the way, come with me to Isaiah 14:12-13: ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
[13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.’
“Now that expression, ‘the sides of the north,’ there are passages back in Samuel where he talks about going up into the sides of the cave. That’s a reference to going way back into the recesses of the thing. When you get back to the farthest part of it.
“Up in the northern part of the universe there is a mountain—it’s called the mount of the congregation—up in the extreme northern part of the universe. There’s a mountain in which the angelic host congregate together to give account of themselves to God and to have their stewardship of their responsibility judged by God.
“Literally that mount of the congregation of the sides of the north is a throne of judgment. You remember in Job 1 and 2 when it says that the angels came to appear before God and Satan came with them?
“And people always say, ‘Well, how could Satan have gotten up into the third heaven where God is? Why would He let him?’ He wasn’t up there! These angels are coming and there’s a regular routine back here where they give account to God. We’ve read about it in Isaiah where in the millennium they come up on that regular basis and worship before the Lord; they do the same thing in the angelic host up here and where they come to is that mount of the congregation on the sides of the north.
“What Solomon’s doing over here is he’s building in the land of Palestine a replica of what God has in the universe. He’s not building it in order to honor the Lord; he’s going to build it in order to have a counterfeit to try to thwart what God’s doing.
“When you counterfeit something it’s not because you like the original real thing; it’s because you want to take the real thing and have something like it.
“Isaiah 14:15 says, ‘Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.’
“Over and over and over, what they do is try to make something like what God’s doing in order to subvert and supplant what God is doing.
“In Judges 17 you have a very critical moment in the life of the nation Israel. Micah had a house of gods and he made an ephod (the robe the priest wears) and a teraphim (the idol used) and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. He’s got his own church. He starts his own religion. But his house of gods is a counterfeit to Israel’s religion. The message was, ‘You don’t need to go to Jerusalem; you can come here.’
“Revelation 12:12 says, ‘Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’
“That war in heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ comes out of the third heaven up here, there are passageways through here. They’re identified before you back in the book of Nehemiah. And He comes out of that heaven with the armies of God and He comes down into this universe and what He’s going to do—you see the reason He starts up here in His Second Advent on the earth is He starts up here and takes this territory away where Satan’s stronghold was. He comes back into the earth and comes in and takes possession.
“My point is what He does in the heavens is mirrored by what He’s going to do in the earth. And what Solomon was doing back there in building that house . . .
“Go to Ezekiel 31 and you’ll see those cedars are used to describe Pharaoh, a type of the Antichrist. When you look at these things about the Second Advent of Christ, the prophetic program and all of that, it’s fascinating to see how the scriptures continuously gives you more threads of understanding and how these things weave themselves together.”
Death and hell are cast into the “lake of fire.” Physical death and spiritual death are cast into the lake which is the “second death.”
Jordan explains, “When he talks about the sea, that’s a little bit harder part of that verse. You say, ‘Is that like when Osama bin Laden died, they threw him in the Indian Ocean and crabs ate his body?’ Well, it’d be kind of a strange reference if it was.
“When he talks about the sea, it’s like that verse back in Exodus 15: ‘The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea.’ What he did with Pharaoh is a picture of what he’s going to do with Satan and the sea.
“That deep up there and that deep down there is represented by the sea and that stuff in Job 9 about the chambers of the south down at the bottom (where the lake of fire is down at the bottom of the universe).
“That verse about the sea is a reference to Jude 6 when he’s talking about the judgment of the angels. And those angels are kept in chains of darkness awaiting the great day of judgment. In other words, not just lost men and women are judged here, but the loss of the angelic creation also find their judgment here.
“So they face this great white throne. Solomon builds a house up here that has this great white throne on it. The parallel is Jerusalem here on the earth and up north up here in the universe . . . by the way, come with me to Isaiah 14:12-13: ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
[13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.’
“Now that expression, ‘the sides of the north,’ there are passages back in Samuel where he talks about going up into the sides of the cave. That’s a reference to going way back into the recesses of the thing. When you get back to the farthest part of it.
“Up in the northern part of the universe there is a mountain—it’s called the mount of the congregation—up in the extreme northern part of the universe. There’s a mountain in which the angelic host congregate together to give account of themselves to God and to have their stewardship of their responsibility judged by God.
“Literally that mount of the congregation of the sides of the north is a throne of judgment. You remember in Job 1 and 2 when it says that the angels came to appear before God and Satan came with them?
“And people always say, ‘Well, how could Satan have gotten up into the third heaven where God is? Why would He let him?’ He wasn’t up there! These angels are coming and there’s a regular routine back here where they give account to God. We’ve read about it in Isaiah where in the millennium they come up on that regular basis and worship before the Lord; they do the same thing in the angelic host up here and where they come to is that mount of the congregation on the sides of the north.
“What Solomon’s doing over here is he’s building in the land of Palestine a replica of what God has in the universe. He’s not building it in order to honor the Lord; he’s going to build it in order to have a counterfeit to try to thwart what God’s doing.
“When you counterfeit something it’s not because you like the original real thing; it’s because you want to take the real thing and have something like it.
“Isaiah 14:15 says, ‘Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.’
“Over and over and over, what they do is try to make something like what God’s doing in order to subvert and supplant what God is doing.
“In Judges 17 you have a very critical moment in the life of the nation Israel. Micah had a house of gods and he made an ephod (the robe the priest wears) and a teraphim (the idol used) and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. He’s got his own church. He starts his own religion. But his house of gods is a counterfeit to Israel’s religion. The message was, ‘You don’t need to go to Jerusalem; you can come here.’
“Revelation 12:12 says, ‘Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’
“That war in heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ comes out of the third heaven up here, there are passageways through here. They’re identified before you back in the book of Nehemiah. And He comes out of that heaven with the armies of God and He comes down into this universe and what He’s going to do—you see the reason He starts up here in His Second Advent on the earth is He starts up here and takes this territory away where Satan’s stronghold was. He comes back into the earth and comes in and takes possession.
“My point is what He does in the heavens is mirrored by what He’s going to do in the earth. And what Solomon was doing back there in building that house . . .
“Go to Ezekiel 31 and you’ll see those cedars are used to describe Pharaoh, a type of the Antichrist. When you look at these things about the Second Advent of Christ, the prophetic program and all of that, it’s fascinating to see how the scriptures continuously gives you more threads of understanding and how these things weave themselves together.”
Thursday, December 1, 2011
'My house rules!'
In I Chronicles 28:9 David is talking to his son Solomon. The verse reads, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”
David wanted to build God a house. The tabernacle was a temporary dwelling made out of animal skins wherein was the Ark (the presence of the Lord). But it was in disrepair at this point and so David wanted a permanent dwelling place.
Jordan explains, “God told David, ‘I’m going to build a house but you can’t do it because you’re a bloody man. I’ll let your son build it.’ David got all the provisions together to build a house. God gave David the pattern for the temple. But he charged Solomon, the man of peace, with the responsibility of setting up the temple, which is a picture of the millennial kingdom.
In verse 11 you see the word “house” is plural. David gave Solomon plans for more than one house.
******
Jordan says, “In I Kings 7 Solomon is now going to build. People like to point out, it only took him seven years to build the temple but it took him 13 years to build his own house. Which one is bigger? Well, you get the idea. Solomon was much more interested in his own house than he was the house of God.
“Verse 2 shows there’s this third house: ‘He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.’
“Lebanon is north of Jerusalem, about 150 miles, and he builds a house in a cedar forest (Ezekiel 31). Just like a vine tree, a fig tree, a bramble tree and an olive tree represent the nation Israel in the Bible, the cedars represent something too.
“In verse 8 there’s another house! This a fourth house for the daughter of Pharaoh. This dude’s in the construction business.
“Cedar grows at a higher elevation so what he’s doing is going up. You read about the high places in the Scripture where the Baal worship is done and so forth. Verse 3 and 7. ‘Covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.’
“The house is 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high and on the end of it it’s got this porch where he sets up this throne and it’s the throne of judgment. Solomon is going to sit on that throne and judge from there.
“Chapter 10:14 says, ‘Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold.’ Notice the number: 666. Solomon was supposed to be the wisest man in the world. He wound up with 700 wives and 300 concubines. How smart could he have been? He was foolish.
"What happened is, as the Scripture says, is he turned to ‘outlandish women.’ Outlandish means a Gentile; somebody outside of Israel. They brought the false gods of the Gentiles into Israel and took his heart away from the Lord into false religion. And Solomon literally turns from the true son of David into the counterfeit becomes literally a type of the Antichrist.
*****
“Verse 14 is where the transition takes place and in verse 15 he takes all that stuff and puts it up there in that house that he built in the cedar forest of Lebanon.
“Verse 19-20 says, ‘The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.
[20] And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.’
“He’s got six steps going down from the throne. He’s got 6 lions on each side. He just keeps that 666 everywhere goes. It becomes his number, his identity.
"I love verse 21: ‘And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.’
“Just going to have gold. When it says ‘it was nothing accounted of’ that’s another way of saying there’s nothing like it anywhere to be found. They were so opulent and wealthy that they made just the ordinary little utensils out of gold.
“Some years ago was the scandal with TV evangelist Jimmy Bakker and one of the raps on him was in his bathroom all the fixtures were made of gold. I think probably it was just gilded stuff but Solomon’s plumbing--everything was made of gold! The dude’s got some money, is the idea. All that stuff was up there in that house in the forests of Lebanon.
“Verse 18 says, ‘Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.’ You remember what I Kings 7:7 said about the throne? He’s got this throne to judge from. But when you come over here in chapter 10 he says it was a great throne of ivory. What color is ivory? It’s white. There’s a great white throne of judgment. What does that bring to your mind?”
David wanted to build God a house. The tabernacle was a temporary dwelling made out of animal skins wherein was the Ark (the presence of the Lord). But it was in disrepair at this point and so David wanted a permanent dwelling place.
Jordan explains, “God told David, ‘I’m going to build a house but you can’t do it because you’re a bloody man. I’ll let your son build it.’ David got all the provisions together to build a house. God gave David the pattern for the temple. But he charged Solomon, the man of peace, with the responsibility of setting up the temple, which is a picture of the millennial kingdom.
In verse 11 you see the word “house” is plural. David gave Solomon plans for more than one house.
******
Jordan says, “In I Kings 7 Solomon is now going to build. People like to point out, it only took him seven years to build the temple but it took him 13 years to build his own house. Which one is bigger? Well, you get the idea. Solomon was much more interested in his own house than he was the house of God.
“Verse 2 shows there’s this third house: ‘He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.’
“Lebanon is north of Jerusalem, about 150 miles, and he builds a house in a cedar forest (Ezekiel 31). Just like a vine tree, a fig tree, a bramble tree and an olive tree represent the nation Israel in the Bible, the cedars represent something too.
“In verse 8 there’s another house! This a fourth house for the daughter of Pharaoh. This dude’s in the construction business.
“Cedar grows at a higher elevation so what he’s doing is going up. You read about the high places in the Scripture where the Baal worship is done and so forth. Verse 3 and 7. ‘Covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.’
“The house is 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high and on the end of it it’s got this porch where he sets up this throne and it’s the throne of judgment. Solomon is going to sit on that throne and judge from there.
“Chapter 10:14 says, ‘Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold.’ Notice the number: 666. Solomon was supposed to be the wisest man in the world. He wound up with 700 wives and 300 concubines. How smart could he have been? He was foolish.
"What happened is, as the Scripture says, is he turned to ‘outlandish women.’ Outlandish means a Gentile; somebody outside of Israel. They brought the false gods of the Gentiles into Israel and took his heart away from the Lord into false religion. And Solomon literally turns from the true son of David into the counterfeit becomes literally a type of the Antichrist.
*****
“Verse 14 is where the transition takes place and in verse 15 he takes all that stuff and puts it up there in that house that he built in the cedar forest of Lebanon.
“Verse 19-20 says, ‘The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.
[20] And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.’
“He’s got six steps going down from the throne. He’s got 6 lions on each side. He just keeps that 666 everywhere goes. It becomes his number, his identity.
"I love verse 21: ‘And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.’
“Just going to have gold. When it says ‘it was nothing accounted of’ that’s another way of saying there’s nothing like it anywhere to be found. They were so opulent and wealthy that they made just the ordinary little utensils out of gold.
“Some years ago was the scandal with TV evangelist Jimmy Bakker and one of the raps on him was in his bathroom all the fixtures were made of gold. I think probably it was just gilded stuff but Solomon’s plumbing--everything was made of gold! The dude’s got some money, is the idea. All that stuff was up there in that house in the forests of Lebanon.
“Verse 18 says, ‘Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.’ You remember what I Kings 7:7 said about the throne? He’s got this throne to judge from. But when you come over here in chapter 10 he says it was a great throne of ivory. What color is ivory? It’s white. There’s a great white throne of judgment. What does that bring to your mind?”
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