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Melchizedek and our Eternal Inheritance   Part 4

4/24/2020

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     We have seen that the Righteous, Holy God of all Creation has #1 created a perfect man, placed him in a perfect environment, given him only one command of prohibition, but his eyes and taste buds immediately looked to what he did not have instead of praising his Creator for the indescribable bounty that surrounded him!  Adam had as nearly a free “will” as any created human could have--and he chose death!  The serpent’s lie was more to be desired than the Creators’ abundance!  And death reigned upon the earth, just as God had warned, and death has governed all that man has or does from that point on.  You don’t believe me?  What time is it?  Time is a measure of limit!  “It’s time to go.”  “How much time do we have left.”  Whereas the days of Creation declared the Goodness of God, all of these phrases now express the limit, the death of whatever has transpired.  This death is a universal bondage that has only ONE Solution (Hebrews 2: 14-15) 
     #2  After a period of display of this death and it’s destruction, God called Abraham out of pagan Ur of the Chaldees.  Remember, this is after a period of destruction in a universal flood and a “reboot” of humanity through Noah. Noah seemed like a good beginning, but humanity didn’t glorify God nor Worship His Goodness.  Death still reigned, and any worship going on was of idols of sticks and stones.  In Abraham, God births two things.  First of all, God establishes the truth that His Righteousness and all His Promises wedded to it, can only be approached and received through a simple thing called FAITH.  The most improtant revelation to fallen man in whom death reigned up to this point in history is declared in Genesis 15:6, “And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD (not just the promise of a Seed, but that the LORD was Jehovah, the Almighty One able to perform all He had promised) and He (God) counted it TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 
     Secondly through Abraham, God brought forth a people, a nation that would foreshadow His Will and Purpose in Eternity.  We must understand that God is Eternal, He has no “temporary thoughts or fantasies”.  HIs creation of time & the events of history all have an Eternal purpose!  Hebrews 10:1 tells us that even the law with all it’s intricacies of sacrificial worship, was merely a shadow of the Good Things to come.  So too this earthly people, Israel.  Their very name speaks promise, gained by faith in the Eternal God!  After a period of the display of human frailty, even in these chosen shadows, God declares His Righteous Essence to them in the Sinai event, and surrounded them with a worship system through which they were to maintain communication, blessing, and direction with this Most High God.  But we have already considered how that worked out!  But praise the Almighty God, that history of fleshly failure is not His Final Word!!!
     Have you noticed that Israel’s history is defined by the system of Worship, Worship of the Most High God, or rather the lack thereof?  That description isn’t quite accurate.  Israel was to be defined before all the nations by their Worship of the Most High God.  Sadly, the weakness of their flesh made it a “system of worship”.  That Worship was to be governed by the Character of God as revealed on Sinai.  That Law was a revelation of God and it’s requirements can be summarized in two, “Love the LORD your God with ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL., AND WITH ALL YOUR  MIND."  The second, our Lord Jesus says, is like the first, flows out of it.  We are to love our  neighbor with the same fervor, the same selflessness, with which we are commanded to Love the LORD our God.!!!  (Matthew 22:37-39)  Have you noticed that the Law was to govern every facet of their existence on this earth, even in matters of sanitation?  Here’s the point!  Israel wasn’t chosen to “do worship”!  No, no!!!  They were chosen TO BE WORSHIP UNTO THE MOST HIGH GOD, and that meant that everything they thought, did, didn’t do, loved or hated, every millisecond was to be Worship to the Most High God!!!  I didn’t say “worshippers”, I said worship!!!  In Exodus 19:4, God say’s, “Ye have seen what I Did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, AND BROUGHT YOU UNTO MYSELF.”  They were set apart, sanctifed unto the LORD through their deliverance from slavery, and that “sanctification” was UNTO the worship and praise of their God’s Goodness & Mercy.  In Deuternomy 6:29 Moses is recounting the Sinai event.  He says that the LORD heard their “words” of agreement to His Covenant conditions and says, ‘they have well said in what they have spoken”, but then in Vs 30 God says this!  “O that there were such a HEART in them that they would fear Me, and keep all my commandments ALWAYS, that it might be well with them and their children forever.”  God spoke the epitaph on Israel before Moses ever got off the mountain!  Remember, their life was to be worship unto God, but they “didn’t have the heart for it"!
     I’ll bet you think I have forgotten Melchizedek.  Remember the Father’s Will and Purpose from Ephesians 1:5-6?  The Father has predestined his people "unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to (unto as in Exodus 19:4) Himself, according to the Good Pleasure of His Will, UNTO THE PRAISE OF THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE, WHEREIN HE HAS MADE US ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED.”  Every iota of His people’s existence is to be Worship unto the praise of the Glory of His Grace.  And every iota of that “life of worship” is through our Union with His Son, Christ Jesus.  Worship language is prevalent in all of Scripture’s discussion of the people of the Most High God.  Everything about them is to be “UNTO HIM”. That’s worship!  What we need to realize and adore is that the One Whom the Father has sent (John 6:29) is the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek!  That Truth governs all that Jesus is, has done, and is doing for His people!!!  And only IN HIM and by HE IN US do we find Life As Worship as God Created it to be.
     Remember the second “faith event” I spoke of previously?  Melchizedek, the Priest of the Most High God brings bread and wine to Abraham, the father of faith Righteousness, after the slaughter of the kidnapper kings. (Genesis 14:18-20)  This is actually before God “cuts the covenant”, seals His covenant in blood with Abraham. (Genesis 15)  There are so many Gospel symbols in this event.  Only two verses!!  But the entire Book of Hebrews is built on them, as well as up0n Psalm 110.  Life as Worship is the goal of faith Righteousness.  Hebrews 8:1 states, “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the Sum; (NKJV “Main Point”) We have such an High Priest, Who is set on the Right Hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens; a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the True Tabernacle, WHICH THE LORD PITCHED, AND NOT MAN.”  In our next studies, we will see that every thing that our Jesus did was as our High Priest, our Melchizedek, our Priest of an Endless Life. And then we will see that the life we now live in the flesh, here and now, is Worship to the Glory of God’s Grace by our High Priest.  
     Ephesians 2:19-22, in speaking of Christ’s making of Jew and Gentile “one new man, so making peace” (Vs 15), we read, “For through Him we both have ACCESS BY ONE SPIRIT UNTO THE FATHER.) (The Worship Purpose)  “Now therefore, ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the Household of God (the House of the LORD, Psalms 23:6 & throughout the OT), And are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone; IN WHOM all the building framed together groweth unto an Holy Temple IN THE LORD; IN WHOM ye also are builded together for a habitation (dwelling place) of God through the Spirit.”  That, my beloved, is our "place of worship", He in us and we in Him!

This will be our focus from here on out!
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Melchizedek Vs Levi   Part 3

4/21/2020

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​                                         
     Perfect God, the perfect revelation of what He required,  the perfect system of worship, all Israel had to do was do what they promised!  “All that the LORD has spoken, WE will do.”  That very perfection on God’s part of the covenant revealed the imperfection, the inability of man to “do his part”.  We find in Israel’s history the evident testimony to Paul’s words in Romans 3:10-12 which he applies to all mankind, both Jew and Gentile.  “As it is written (Psalm 14 & 53), there is none righteous, no, not one: thee is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: THERE IS NONE THAT DOETH GOOD, NO, NOT ONE.”  And that was written hundreds of years after Sinai!  God writes His indictment against the nation and their perversion of worship that should have led them to the faith of their father Abraham, In Isaiah, especially chapter one.  In Isaiah 1:10, God calls them Sodom and Gomorrah, a horrible comparison, and in vs 11 we read, “to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? Saith the LORD:  I am full of (had my fill of) the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs or of goats.”  But I thought God required them to bring those sacrifices?  In amongst the charges Isaiah brings against Israel, in amongst the calls to repentence, we find that their problem isn’t that they didn’t do stuff, but the their heart in the doing voided the very act before God!!  They provoked the Holy One of Israel in that “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint”. (Isa. 1:5) (I believe we see the same message from our Lord Jesus in the sermon on the mount in the “but I say unto you” in Matthew 5, and the “take heed” of chapter 6.  He destroy’s a “good deed’s” religion unless those deeds, those prayers, that charity, flow from our worship of the most high God.)
     To what purpose then, was this system of worship, ordained by God, but defiled continually by the inability of the human side of the contract?  For the physical seed of Abraham, it was the means of repentance before God, ever reminding them that their righteousness was a filthy rags, and of their need of constant cleansing.  It was only this repentant HEART that kept the channels of directon and earthly blessing open between them and their God.  “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sin every year. For IT IS NOT POSSIBLE that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin.” (Hebrews 10:3-4)  God never intended for Israel to believe that these repeated sacrifices could cleanse them of their sins.  No, no, the sacrifices and the entire levitical system was to remind them of their sin, that they were sinners in need of constant cleansing!  But in their hearts, they turned this system into a system of do’s & dont’s that made God “happy with them” or at least kept Him “off their backs” and gave them a national pride among the nations.  “Israel, yeah, they’re the people that circumcise their boys, have that fancy portable church and kill lots of animals every year.”  The nations no longer thought of “Israel’s” God, and His protection and blessing.  Israel’s God became no different that Baal or Ashteroth in the eyes of the nations! They viewed Israel by this collection of external “worship”.  And that is the condemnation of Ezekiel 36:16-21.  But in that condemnation, God gives us the reason for His New Covenant:  “For My Holy Name’s sake!!”
     And that brings us to the real purpose, God's Eternal Purpose, of the history of Israel and the Law and the entire Old testament.  Remember those words, “for My Holy Name’s sake!!  In the ego mania of the fall, even we “christians” view everything from a “ME” context, even God and His “plan of salvation”.  In so doing, we often miss His Holy Name’s sake in all that He Does!!!  We overlook that crucial verse in Hebrews 10, the first verse!  “For the law, HAVING A SHADOW OF THE GOOD THINGS TO COME, AND NOT THE VERY IMAGE OF THE THINGS.”  That phrase should be our starting point for any consideration of everything in the OT, especially the system of worship in it!
     And what is it that casts this “shadow” over the old covenant?  I believe it is the Eternal Will &  Purpose of the Heavenly Father to reveal the Glory of His Grace and Mercy to men and angels, unto the fullness of Praise as we see in John’s vision of the “throne room” of God in Revelation 4.  And that Will & Purpose is Embodied in His Beloved Son, the God come in our flesh, the Scroll Opener of Revelation 5.  The scroll of history is given from the Father’s Right Hand to the Lamb, significant because of Psalm 110:1.  What the vision reveals, through chapter 19, is the outworking of the Bloody Lamb’s “Once Done Victory” through His death and resurrection, the Father's power worked toward us who believe.(Ephesians 1:19-20)  We will see the outworking and promised hope of that victory as we proceed into Hebrews 10.  For you see, all of God’s Will & Purpose is manifested in and through the real Subject of the entire book of Hebrews, our Melchizedek!  The Son of God made flesh, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, He is the Shadow cast upon the whole of old testament.  He is the “Good Things to come” of 10:1.  The chapter will lead us from the utter futility of animal sacrifices to the sufficiency and satisfaction of our Melchizedek, even unto the command to “enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and Living Way, which He consecrated for us (paid the entree fee!!), through the veil, that is His flesh (human flesh, the body of Vs 5), and HAVING A HIGH PRIEST OVER THE HOUSE OF GOD (the house of Hebrews 3:1-6), let us DRAW NEAR with a true heart IN FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (10:19-22)  And that is our entrance, not in a vision as in Revelation 4, but in the reality of faith right now!  As our faith increasingly comprehends and apprehends our Great High Priest, we will see that our liberty, our freedom of the consciousness of sin is found in our being “gathered together in Him”. (Ephesians 1:10) “for in Him Dwells all the FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY; an you are COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principalities and powers.” (Colossians 2:9-10)     
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Melchizedek Vs Levi  Part 2

4/19/2020

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     "For every high priest taken from among men is appointed FOR MEN in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.  He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, (that’s all of us!) since he himself is beset by weakness.  Because of this he is required as for the people (as he does for the people), so also for himself (to do for himself), to offer for sins.  And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.”  (Hebrews 5:1)
     You see, that very weakness, the weakness of the one who administered the sacrifice for sin, the high Priest, magnified the weakness of the flesh “virus” that infected the human side of the legal agreement! (Exodus 19:8)  And this is made clear in Hebrews 7:23, “And there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing.”  They kept dying all the time!  But wait, I thought they were administering the perfect religion, to bring Israel to God?  But “the wages of sin is death.” So death was still reigning, even in those very high priests! (Romans 6:23a)  Hebrews 7:11 “Therefore if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should ARISE according to the order of Melchizedek.......”  And therein is the problem, the Levitical priesthood could not offer the perfection God required for intimate fellowship, and that was evidenced in that the high priests under that legal system kept on dying!
     “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices WHICH THEY OFFERED YEAR BY YEAR make the comers  (those who came unto God through those sacrifices offered by the priests) perfect.  For then would they not have ceased to be offered?  For the worshipers, once purged (cleansed), WOULD HAVE HAD NO MORE CONCIOUSNESS OF SINS.  But in those sacrifices there is a REMINDER OF SINS every year.  For IT IS NOT POSSIBLE THAT THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS COULD TAKE AWAY SINS.” (Hebrews 10:1-4)  
     Did you stumble over that phrase, “consciousness of sin”? It is saying that an adequate sacrifice administered by an adequate high priest, one who didn’t keep dying, would remove the consciousness of sin!  The NIV places the word “guilt” in this location.  All of the more literal translations keep the word “consciousness” in this verse.  Guilt doesn’t quite reflect the meaning of this “outrageous” verse.  Thayers Greek Lexicon: a. “consciousness of nobility; a soul mindful of it’s nobility, a soul mindful of it’s noble origin.  b. the soul as distinguishing between what is morally good and bad, prompting to do the former and shun the latter, commending the one, and condemning the other.”  This is a guilt magnified by the knowledge of the right way, but in spite of that knowledge, choosing the wrong way!  “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)  The phrase, “sinning against light” comes to mind.  Therefore, there had to be found a better sacrifice and a better priest to not only purge from momentary sins, but cleanse the conscience so that it makes the right choice!!!
     Just a thought on the inadequacy of animal sacrifices.  Of course animal sacrifice couldn’t put away sins!  The law requires the penalty be paid by the law breaker.  God does not “overlook” the sin of any man, woman, or child.  It is His very Character as God that has been violated!  Here’s the point.  Animals were not cursed for sin!  They did not bear the “wages of sin”, the required penalty- death, because they were not guilty of sin!  Paul in Romans 8:19-22 explains that all of creation was subjected to futility (death) unwillingly.  Our disobedience in that perfection of Eden subjected all of creation, against it’s created will and purpose, to the bondage of death!  And now “we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.” (8:22)  Every time a squirrel gets hit by a car (I’m not overly fond of squirrels), everytime a volcano erupts, every time a virus sweeps the earth, it is the groaning of creation.  And Paul implies that this groaning , this travailing in pain, is actually the earths “birth pangs”.  The earth is in labor, “the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation (revealing) of the sons of God.” (8:19)  The beauty of this earth, the incredible song of the birds I am hearing at this very moment, even in all of the damage done to it in our fallenness, is the anticipation of the hope (8:20) that awaits, “a new heaven and a new earth where Righteousness dwells”. (2 Peter 3:11-13; see also Acts 3:21; Hebrews 2:5; Revelation 21-22)  And what is the earth waiting for?  Remember, the “the revealing of the sons (think adoption) of God?  “The creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (8:21)  And what is that hope of deliverance?   The Adoption completed, “the redemption of our body.” (8:23) 
     “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (Romans 7:24-25a)  And that verse will bring us to the only adequate sacrifice, our Melchizedek--next time, I promise!
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Melchizedek vs. Levi

4/17/2020

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​     The fact that Revelation 1:6 declares that our Lord Jesus Christ “has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father” verifies that we are now, this very instant as kings and priests, “in Melchizedekian territory”.  We are no longer under a system that tries, even with the tiniest human effort, to make God pleased with us enough to remove our conscience of sin and the fear of death.
     The Old Covenant, with it’s perfect declaration of the Righteousness of God in the Law, even with the continual hedge of the Levitical Priesthood and it’s continual bloody, sacrifices of cleansing, many feasts and observances, could never clear the conscience of ever present sin! (Hebrews 10:1-3)  God’s part of the covenant was perfect!  It’s weakness was in the human part, for a covenant must have two parties.  It’s weakness was manifested in Israel’s ignorant proclamation, as found in Exodus 19:8, “Then all the people ANSWERED TOGETHER (as one voice), ‘ALL that the LORD has spoken, WE WILL DO.”  In their words, they showed that they neither knew their own hearts, nor did they know the LORD their God!  Paul summarizes their failure and gives God’s solution (but more of that later) in Romans 8:3, “For what the LAW COULD NOT DO IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD DID BY SENDING HIS OWN SON....."  Because of Israel’s continual confidence in their flesh which invariably leads to an arrogant, hardened heart, they refused the Righteousness of Faith peeking out of every nook and cranny of the Law! (Romans 10)  And because of their “hardened & impenitent hearts, they treasured up unto theirselves wrath in the day of judgement”. (Romans 2:5)  The fruit of such blindness is always a sliding scale of righteousness, a tithing “mint, anise & cumin” (Matthew 25:25) and/or “fasting twice in the week” (Luke 18:11-12) righteousness. “I may have a hang up or two, but I’m not as bad as this tax collector or this prostitute.”  As with Israel, so with ourselves--If there is an iota of comparison in ourselves with any other created being, and not exclusively with the Holy God of Heaven and Earth, we have pharisaical self-righteousness lurking in our hearts.
     And God’s solution to the “weak flesh” problem?  The solution was in the very Law and all their heritage, right before their blind eyes. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 10:2-4 that Israel ate of the same spiritual food and drank of the same spiritual drink as we, “For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST.”  When they grumbled about no water, they were grumbling about the Water of Life.  When they grumbled about the manna, they were grumbling about the Bread of Life.  When they wanted to go back to Egypt, they were saying that the Promise in Christ Jesus wasn’t worth it, Eternal Life isn’t worth the effort, they prefered the bad breath of Egypt, with its leeks & garlic! And Moses was hindered from going into the Promised Land because he struck the Rock twice, a blow that minimised the “Once Done” sacrifice of the Rock Christ Jesus. 
​     And they daily ignored the testimony of the necessity of faith given to Abraham their father!  Now this is a bit graphic, but it was an essential part of the witness of the Faith Righteousness Abraham passed down to all his descendants.  Paul states in Romans 4:11, “And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a  seal (think of the seal of a king on a royal document) of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.”  So here is the graphic (warning) point, Israel should have been reminded of the Righteousness that God requires is only by faith, every time any male answered the call of their bladder or united with their wives in the glorious, God ordained holy union of sex, the one flesh blessing that testifies to the One God in three Persons!  Every time they looked at their children, the offspring of that God image union, they should have been reminded that their existence as a nation was because their father Abraham  believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness! Genesis 15:6  (Consider how that seal of the righteousness of faith plays into God’s forbidding Israel’s mixing with pagan nations and their wives, or the severe penalties for adultery, etc.)  But of course, in the hardness of their hearts, this very seal of the righteousness of faith became a thing of national pride and arrogance.  They divided humanity into the circumsised and the “uncircumcised” which became an epithet of their arrogance.  That arrogance Paul continually had to fight in the early church.  His struggle against that religious arrogance is found overtly or implicitly in all his epistles.  But he restates the truth of this faith sign for us, New Covenant believers, in Philippians 3:3, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Jesus Christ, and HAVE NOOOOOO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH.”  May God place that three-fold seal in the depths of our hearts!  May we not be characterized by the evil heart of unbelief! (Hebrews 4:12) 

A more positive note next time!
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Our Melchizedek & the Power of His Resurrection

4/10/2020

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    I wish I could keep this post short, so people would read it.  But I can't digest the revelation of the Son of Man as our Melchizedek into a "meme".  After all, Jesus Christ is the "hermeneutic"  of God's Word.  The Father has spoken to us by His Son. (Hebrews 1:2)  In John 5:39, Jesus upbraided the Pharisee's for searching the scriptures, seeking eternal life in them, but His ultimate criticism was (the scriptures, the OT in their case) "are they which speak of Me."  The Father's voice was in the Law & prophets  & all of Israel's history, for that matter, (John 5:37), but they did not believe so they ended up selling pigeons & doves in the temple, kind of like today!  So please stay with me as I seek, with my feeble mind & inadequate heart, to shed a tiny triple A (battery) bit of light on our Glorious Melchizedek!
     The matter of Eternal Life is at the core of all of Scripture, and it's Hope isn't found in some celebration of the ecclesiastical full moon, but in the Truth of our Melchizedek! That Truth should turn the Hope of Eternal Life into and everyday celebration! But I digress.  
     This Revelation of our Melchizedek is the manifestation of the means of our union & communion, our oneness with the Father & His Son, that relationship John so repetitively speaks of in our Jesus' Priestly prayer in John 17.  But as with most everything in  Scripture, we must start with the Father's Will & Purpose declared in Ephesians 1.  "Oh, not again!" I hear those groans.  But Ephesians 1 is the nourishing "breast milk" from the Father that most spiritual infants of today have not had.  Therefore Hebrews 5:5-12 must be written over much of contemporary Christendom. "Dull of hearing", needing milk, not having ears to hear!  Everything in our existence as mere creatures grows out of the Father's Will & Purpose & we walk around blindly, bouncing off historical walls & futile plans until we come to be governed by that Truth.  It isn't one of "the ten basic steps to christian maturity", it is the foundation of Divine Truth and the preservative from the quicksand of  the humanistic, "it's all about me" christianity that passes as "gospel" today.   Sorry, enough of my sarcasm.
     Ephesians 1 makes it plain that the Father's Will & Purpose resides in His "gathering together in One all things IN CHRIST, ....IN HIM."  The text proceeds to reveal that the Father's Eternal Living Will & Testament is Signed & Sealed in the hearts of those that believe His Word by His Holy Spirit of Promise.(Vs 13-14)  What follows is the first of Paul's glorious prayers for his hearers (and us!).  He asks "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory would give unto you the Spirit of wisdom & revelation in THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM , the eyes of your understanding being enlightened", (Think 1 John 5:20-21)  the they may know three things:  #1 the hope of the Father's Calling, #2 what are the riches of the Glory of HIS INHERITANCE in the saints (the rabbit trail that started this whole pursuit), and #3 "the exceeding greatness of His Power toward us-ward who believe, according to His Might Power, which He wrought IN CHRIST, when HE RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, AND SET HIM AT HIS OWN RIGHT HAND IN HEAVENLY PLACES."  In that Resurrection, Paul says He was "declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead". (Romans 1:4 That is the "Power of the Gospel" of which Paul is speaking in 1:16.) 
     Enter Psalm 110:4  "The Lord hath sworn(made an oath, a God Oath), and will not repent (never change His Mind or change the duration of the Oath), Thou are a Priest FOR EVER AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK." 
      Hebrews 7:14-19 "For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood, and it is yet more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there ARISES (Holy Spirit's "play on words".  All literal translations have "arises".  Our High Priest is the one that ARISES!!!) another priest Who has come, not according to a fleshly commandment (as the Levitical priests), BUT ACCORDING TO !!!!!!!!!THE POWER OF AND ENDLESS LIFE!!!!!!!!   For He (the Father) testifies, 'You are a Priest FOREVER according to the order of Melchizedek.' for on the one hand, there is the annulling of the former commandment (OT worship system) because of it's weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, THERE IS THE BRINGING IN A BETTER HOPE, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THROUGH WHICH WE DRAW NEAR TO GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
    This Glorious Priesthood is the Personal outworking of God's Power, Eternal Life, toward us who believe.  This is the One Who came in our flesh, offered Himself (a priestly activity) for the penalty required for our sins!  This is the One, through His Priestly Offering in our human flesh (with not even the scent of our sin), through His death, destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime (that word speaks of "term limits") subject to bondage."  And how?  By the Power of His Resurrection!  Our blessed hope is only found in the Eternal Ministry of our High Priest Who is saving us to the uttermost, (in the face of covid-19, lupus, fibromyalgia, Minears, high blood pressure, heart surgery, car wrecks, children who do not follow God, hearing loss, bad eyesight.  Did I miss anything?  Of course I did.  We are plagued by "fear chains" in this animated death that we call life.  But we face all of that with the assurance that "for all who come to God through Him, He ever lives to make intercession for them." (Heb. 7:25)
     That, beloved, is our everyday Easter hope!

      We will look more at the practical outworking of that "Power toward us" next time.
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Our Melchezidekian Inheritance #2

4/5/2020

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      I have been intrigued by the fact that the two major truths of  our Eternal Salvation, Justification by faith in the perfect Work of the Father's propitiatory sacrifice for us, His Beloved Son, and secondly the Son's perpetual Eternal Ministry as our great High Priest, His ever living to make to make Eternal Intercession for us, that is as the Eternal Satisfactory Man Who dwells in the Presence of the Father and we in Him, both have their Biblical root in two seemingly obscure events.  Justification by faith is rooted in a nobody being called out of a pagan land, given the promise of blessing all the nations of the earth while being married to a barren woman.  Is that any way to start a nation?  Genesis 12:1-5.  And immediately, Abraham exhibits his unbelief in his lie regarding Sarah as his sister.  And then we have Lot and his move to Sodom, and in this "glorious" context, our next foundational faith event occurs.  Abraham rescues Lot, saves Sodom in a great victory.  Enter the mysterious King of Salem, Melchizedek.  And He is so important to our faith that he isn't mentionioned again until that prophetic Psalm 110, that Glorious prophecy of the LORD says to David's Lord, that He will be made a victorious King and then verse 4, prophesies that this King will also be a King/Priest like that obscure Melchizedek of Genesis 14:8-20.
     And then we come to Genesis 15 and God's restatement of the promised blessing, descendants as the stars of the sky!  "And he believed in the LORD and he counted it to him for righteousness.  And upon his faith, God "cut" the covenant, sealed in blood his covenant with Abraham.  And what follow is a glorious story of mighty faith and victory!  Hardly!  What follows is a history of unbelief, first Abraham and Sarah's, and then in their descendants.  In the midst of this failure, there are a few faithful bright spots, but not many.  But it is this one event, Genesis 15:6, that the Apostle Paul builds his airtight case for Justification by faith in Romans 4 and declares the fulfillment of that promise in 4:16, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that seed only which is of the law, but to that see which is of the faith of Abraham, WHO IS THE FATHER OF US ALL."  And then Paul draws upon on Abraham's faith event in his defense of Grace to the Galatians in 3:6-29, amplifying many points, explaining that seed promise was the all about the Seed, Christ.  In Romans 4:10-11 clearly showing that Abraham's faith preceded his circumcision, "And he received the sign (mark) of circumcision as a seal, as a testimony of the the faith which he BEFORE being circumcised:  that he might be the father of all them that believe, though the be not circumcised..........."  Every circumcision in the nation should have shouted, "my being part of the family of Abraham requires faith!  My natural blood line is not enough."  All of that from Genesis 15:6!
     And that brings us back to the event that directly precedes it in the Genesis history of our faith righteousness--Melchizadek!  God establishes his Law in Israel, raises up a priesthood to administer this perfect religious system, and yet, Melchizadek is not it's source or description.  The Levitical priesthood was never intended to be more than a shadow, a testament to the futility of a human priesthood.  As in Israel's wandering & meanderings, so to in the priesthood, there are shadows and types, examples for us upon whom the ends of the world has come. (1 Cor. 10:11)  But it is not until the glorious exposition in Hebrews of the mysterious Melchizedekian priesthood, and our Melchizedek, from the tribe of Judah, not Levi, that our salvation is truly found secure in our Great High Priest, the one Who rules from a throne of Mercy and Grace in His grand perfection as the Perfect Sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  As stated before, Paul says He is the Seed of Abraham meant in the Promise of God, and Praise God, He is our Victorious King/Priest promised in Psalm 110!  "But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.  Therefore HE IS ABLE TO SAVE TO THE UTTERMOST those who come to God through Him (John 14:6), since He Lives Forever to make intercession for them!!!"  Our inheritance is never found in the Levitical priesthood.  It is always and only found in our Melchizedek!  That will be our focus from here on out.
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Our Melchizedekian Inheritance - Introduction

4/5/2020

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       Our little fellowship is continuing it's weekly gathering via Facebook.  A bit of a learning curve at first, but it is very profitable and encouraging.  We are studying Joshua on Sunday mornings and Revelation on Wednesday nights. Our dear Brother Kevin has been the "facilitator" of our Joshua study. Actually, "kickstarter" might be more appropriate for whoever leads our little group. Introduce the text, and we're off and running!  He doesn't even have to touch the accelerator!  There is bound to be a few curves and undoubtedly some rabbit trails that are richly rewarding.  The only problem with this group, sometimes it's hard to find the brake!!  For you see, it is a wonderful group made up of sinners saved by Grace alone, who are desperately seeking to know and fellowship with the Father in heaven through His Beloved Son.  See 1 John 1:1-4!
     This week Kevin announced the text as Joshua 13:22-33, and then proceeded to testify to the Spirit focusing his attention upon our inheritance, which led him to Hebrews 9:15, "And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgression that were under the first testament, that they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritance." I had been drawn by the Spirit in the same Joshua 13 context to vs 14 and also vs 33 where, in the division of the promised land, the tribe of Levi received no earthly land promise.  In vs 14 we read, "the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as He said unto them."  And again, in vs 33 we read, "the LORD God of Israel was there inheritance, as he said unto them."
     And this led me to, what I hope and pray is a Glory trail, the similarities and the differences in inheritance between the Levitical priesthood and new testament kingdom of priests and their (our) inheritance.  I quickly saw that my initial thought of a simple post was absurd as the Spirit (I believe) began flooding my mind with scriptures that "flesh out" this truth.  Therefore, this intro is just the first of several.  Please check back as I add to this theme.
     But first, a bit about how to approach Old Testament themes, shadows & types, in the light of the New Covenant.   We do not dare to come to this study with our mere mortal minds, lay out our commentaries and lexicons and get at it!  The best posture for approaching anything in the Word of God, is on our knees.  At least on the knees of our heart, but often on our physical knees before our God.  Secondly, We dare not come to the Word of God for mere knowledge.  John makes it plain that the Apostles wrote what they did, "that you may also have fellowship with us: and truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.  True, doctrine is for reproof, correction, and instruction in Righteousness, but the reason it is for that is that our fellowship with our God may be complete, dependent, and uninterrupted by our unrighteous flirtations.
     Thirdly, John, at the end of his first epistle says, "And we know that the Son of God has come and given us an Understanding, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM THAT IS TRUE, and we are IN HIM that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ."  And take note, "This is the True God, and Eternal Life."  That Understanding is the Holy Spirit Who Jesus said Is the Spirit of Truth Who will "Lead you into all Truth.......He shall Glorify Me.  Paul makes it plain that, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:  for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 
    Fourthly, over and over again in Revelation 2 & 3, in speaking to the churches, we read, "He that hath an ear, let Him HEAR what the Spirit saith unto the churches."  A hearing ear, a spiritual ear, not deafened by false motives, not deafened by the tinnitus of the many voices trying to sell us the wares of their interpretation, but the ears of Bereans, searching the Scriptures with hungry, yet Spiritually dependent hearts.
     Hear the words of our Lord to the Pharisees in John 5:37-40.  "The Father Himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of Me. Ye have neither HEARD HIS VOICE at any time, nor seen His shape.  And ye have not His Word abiding in you:  for Whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not.  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; AND THEY ARE THEY WHICH TESTIFY (SPEAK) OF ME.  And ye will not come to me that ye might have life."
     As we look at our Glorious Melchizedekian Inheritance, may we HEAR the Word of the Lord.  Remember, "God Who at various times and sundry ways spoke in time past unto the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son."  Hebrews 1:1-2










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Be Prepared for a Joseph Moment!

4/4/2020

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     I've heard that wearing masks and China has been a blessing, in disguise (LOL), for the Christians there. It has thwarted China's facial recognition cameras that are throughout the land, allowing them to move more freely then they normally can. Reminds me of when Mao in his egotism, wanted the masses to be able to read his Little red book of perverted wisdom. He sent teachers throughout the land to teach people to read. And of course, among the most literate were Christians. And in that way the sovereign God spread the truth of his redeeming love through Jesus throughout the country. And estimates say there are more Christians in China than communists. And remember the masterful Romans roads? It was those roads that enabled the early missionaries to spread the gospel throughout what is now Europe. And you think God is thwarted by a mere stay-at-home order? Not on your life. "With God nothing shall be impossible." Luke 1:37
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    While I have been a pastor and Christian bookstore owner for 30 years, my only credentials are that of an old saint who followed his signature with S.S., Sinner Saved!

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