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!
#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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