This is a Valentine’s Day to remember. I’ve been out sick from work both yesterday and today. Yesterday was about sleeping and today was about old romance movies playing on local stations all day long.
Fortunately, I’m feeling tons better after a big malaise that came on me suddenly Sunday night. So, back in business and here’s some stuff in honor of the holiday for my married readers out there:
Jesus Christ says to His apostles in John 15: 13-15, “13] Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. [14] Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.[15] Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
Jordan explains, “Jesus is talking to people who entered into an understanding of what Christ was doing and were doing what they were doing because they were his friends.
“I don’t know how you would define a friend. I ask people, ‘When you talk about someone as your friend, exactly what does that mean?’ Proverbs says, ‘A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.’ Two verses later is the verse, ‘A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.’
“I think the greatest definition I know of is found in Deuteronomy 13:6: ‘If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers.’
“This is one of these verses in the Bible where you find a definition where the verse isn’t focusing on doing that—it just kind of does it for you in that casual assumption kind of a way which shows more power to the definition because it’s not trying to press a point; it’s just, ‘This is the assumption of what a friend is in the Bible.’
“He puts a little appositive in there—that is, a statement that defines what a friend is. And that friend is described as ‘which is as thine own soul.’ People have taken that verse and we have a term we use in the culture for it called ‘soul mate.’
“Most people when they say that we find out they’re talking about the person they want to get married to. Someone who is your friend is someone whose soul is in oneness with yours.
“When the Lord Jesus Christ said His joy was to do the will of His Father (‘My meat is to do the will of him who sent me’) the thing that gives me strength and sustenance and makes my life work, Jesus said, is to do the will of my Father.
“The Lord Jesus Christ understood that that meant more than just in rote doing what He said. As an abstract analogy, a son begins to understand the big picture of his father’s plan and buys into it and a son does WILLINGLY what he is required to do as a child.
“Jeremiah 9:23 says, ‘Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:’
“You want to rejoice in something, God says, rejoice in that you understand me and what I delight in! And you come to the place that you’re as delighted about what I’m delighted in; that what I’m zealous about, you’re zealous about. You think like I think in the Big Picture and it’s no longer, ‘I’m just doing this commandment because He said to do it and if I don’t do it, He’s going to whack me!’ It’s, ‘I understand why it’s this way—I buy into the program and I don’t just buy into it, understand it and know it, it’s a good deal! It’s a good thing and I delight in it!’
“Now that’s what Jesus did when He came. Psalm 40:6 (‘Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required’) is the passage quoted over in Hebrews 10:
“That’s the way a son works. That’s the way a friend works. When Deuteronomy says a friend is as one who is as thine own soul, that means they’ve come to understand what’s in your heart. They’ve bought into it and they’ve come to delight in it the same way you delight in it.
“Jesus says to these apostles, ‘You are my friends.’ Do you know the first person in the Bible called a friend of God was Abraham?
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James 2:21 says, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”
Jordan explains, “It isn’t the work for works sake. It’s the works because you’ve bought into and understand what God’s doing. It’s the works produced by faith in the verses and the truth, and it’s the outworking of God’s life in Believers.
“It’s always God’s Word working through His people to produce the fruit. ‘And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
[24] Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only,’
“What began back there gets finished over here. And he was called ‘the friend of God.’ Now he’s called the friend of God. That passage is in II Chronicles 20 and Isaiah 41. Abraham was called this because he came to the place where he understood and bought into and lived out, delighted in what the Father delighted in.
“Likewise, these apostles, the night before Christ dies, He takes them aside to say: ‘I’m going to go die. I’m going to die for you. You’re my friends. You’re the ones who I’ve . . . ‘
“Verse 15 says, ‘Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.’
“Just like my Father has revealed all these things to me, I’ve revealed them to you. I’ve entrusted the deposit the Father gave me with you. Just as I’ve learned what the Father is doing and I’m delighting in it, I’m giving it to you to delight in! You’re my friends. You’re as mine own soul. So I’m not going to call you servants. I’m going to call you friends because I’ve made you my friends. You’ve not chosen me but I’ve chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.’
“That goes back to chapter 14 where we’re talking about this permanent nature in the New Covenant that comes in, and now they’re going to have this permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this permanent heart-writing of the law, this permanent working.
“It’s not going to be temporary anymore. It’s not going to be this David stuff back there in Psalm 51 where he says, ‘Don’t take it away from me,’ afraid that it would be. Or Saul where he does lose it or Samson where he loses it and gets it back. It’s not going to be all of that. Now there’s going to be this permanent thing. He’s going to finish the task with Israel.
“They’re going buy into the program so fully they’re going to know what’s in line with His will. They’re going to delight in it so fully that when they talk to the Father about it, it will be just like Christ talking to the Father and it will be done. This is high ground these guys are being put on.”
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The key to dispensationalism understanding is the reader is on a time line where, as time goes on in the Bible, people know more than they did before. It’s called “progressive revelation.”
Psalm 42 is a classic psalm with its heading, “To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.” This means it was written for the head choir director; the top guy.
Jordan says, “It’s a very important thing. That term Maschil alerts you to the fact that this psalm is a psalm designed for its teaching and edification purposes. The term Maschil means to teach or to educate.
“This is a psalm designed not just to encourage, and not just to comfort, and not just to exhort, but to edify. To give instruction. And when it says ‘a song of loves,’ come over to the Song of Solomon and Isaiah 5. In the Bible there are three of these types of psalms.
“Isaiah 5:1 says, ‘Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.’
“ In other words this is a love song that God sings with regard, and concerning His purpose, for the nation Israel. The vineyard here is the nation Israel. Verse 7 says, ‘For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.’
“Song of Solomon verse 1 says, ‘The song of songs, which is Solomon's.’ When it says this is ‘the song of songs,’ this is the top, most important the supreme song. It’s the song of all the songs of Solomon. And of course it’s a song about the little flock’s loyalty to her beloved and her resistance of the seduction policy of the Adversary to seduce her away from her husband.
“Psalm 45 is the third one. These songs are designed to demonstrate the purpose God has in the nation Israel and the special love relationship and manifestation of His love in relationship for them.
“Psalm 42 begins the second book of the psalms and it deals with the Messiah as Israel’s Deliverer. The first set deals with Israel’s Redeemer. Psalm 42-44 talk about the NEED for Israel to have a Deliverer and they pray. Literally those songs are praying and seeking for, and panting after, as Psalm 42 says, a Deliverer.
“Well, Psalm 45 here comes the King and it’s ‘the Deliverer is here,’ and if you wanted to title this song I guess you’d call it ‘the marriage psalm.’ ”
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