Friday, September 14

Why then the Law?

Absolutely awesome Sermon, accurate, and on point!
John Piper once again! Dont forget to visit John Pipers site, click on the link on the right, or click the title of this posting!
Enjoy!

Galatians 3:19-22

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained by angels through an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one; but God is one.
Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture consigned all things to sin, that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

The Life and Death Importance of the Who and Why
Saint Paul's mind is more like Rudyard Kipling's The Elephant's Child than Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Tennyson said of his "noble six hundred,"
Theirs not to make reply,Theirs not to reason why,Theirs but to do and die.
Many of us are tempted to live like that. We understand so little and see such a small part of God's purpose in things that we want to give up thinking and say, "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die." But not the apostle Paul. If I read Galatians and Romans correctly, Paul would have agreed more with Kipling when he wrote,
I keep six honest serving men(They taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and WhenAnd How and Where and Who.

In a universe created by a personal God who does all things according to his purpose, the most important of those two "serving men" are WHO and WHY. There was no question who gave the law to Israel. The question was why. "Why then the law?" (Galatians 3:19).
Not everybody cares. You can imagine someone saying: "What differences does it make, why. It's there. So let's make the most of it. Ours is not to reason why. Ours is but to do and die." Many in Israel did, and died precisely because they did not know the reason why the law was given. You can't make the most of it unless you know what it is there for. If you don't know why the traffic light is red, you may get smashed in the intersection. If you don't know why Mr. Yuk is on the medicine bottle, you may get poisoned. In many areas of life yours is to reason why lest you do and die. And that includes the law of God. If we don't understand why it was given, we can kill ourselves with it. Paul said in Romans 9:32 that the reason Israel stumbled into destruction was not that they didn't pursue the law, but that they pursued it in the wrong way: from works and not from faith; in the effort of the flesh instead of the power of the Spirit. In other words, moral effort can be a mortal sin.

When I wrote in The Standard this month that legalism is a greater menace to the church than alcoholism, it wasn't for shock effect. It was a straightforward theological truth. Alcoholics are in a tragic bondage. And we must do all we can to help. But legalism is more subtle and more pervasive and, in the end, more destructive. Satan clothes himself as an angel of light and makes the very commandments of God his base of operations. And the human heart is so inveterately proud and unsubmissive that it often uses religion and morality to express its rebellion. As Romans 10:3 says, "In seeking to establish their own righteousness, they would not submit to the righteousness of God." The pursuit of righteousness can lead to perdition. So Galatians admonishes us: Know why the law was given and don't be bewitched into pursuing it in a way that leads to death, but only in a way that leads to life.

Why the Law Was Given
Galatians 3:19–22 gives two answers to why the law was given to Israel and became part of our Holy Scripture. Both of these answers are stated twice, once in verse 19 and once in verse 22. The first answer in verse 19 is that the law "was added because of transgressions." I'll try to show in a minute what this means, and that it is virtually the same as the first part of verse 22: "the scripture (or the law) consigned all things to sin." The second answer to the question, "Why then the law?" is the latter half of verse 22, "that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." And this is the same as the part of verse 19 which says, "till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made." So in summary, the two purposes of the law in this text are first, to shut up the world under sin and increase trespasses; and second, to see to it that the inheritance will come to and through the promised seed, Jesus Christ, and no other way. I'm going to save this second purpose for next week when we finish chapter 3 and talk about the law as a custodian. Today I want us to think mainly about the first purpose: the law was added for the sake of trespasses and for shutting people up in sin.
But first a brief comment about the last half of verse 19 and verse 20. It says, "The law was ordained by angels through an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one; but God is one." I am not going to deal with this because I don't know what it means. I cannot figure out how the two halves of verse 20 relate to each other. I would be happy for anyone to give me insight here.

To Reveal Sin as Sin
So that leaves us with one chief task: to understand and apply to ourselves the first purpose of the law. We'll start with verse 19. When it says, "The law was added because of transgressions," does it mean that the law came in to produce transgressions, or that the transgressions were there and the law came in to punish them? The former is almost certainly the meaning: the law was added to produce transgressions. The key parallel to this verse is in Romans 5:20. There Paul makes his meaning very clear: "Law came in to increase the trespass."
This is true in two senses. The first is clear from Romans 4:15, "For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression." I think what this means is that you may distrust your doctor in your heart, but that distrust doesn't become visible until he gives you a prescription and you toss it in the garbage. The prescription makes a visible transgression out of invisible rebellion. So when Paul says in Galatians 3:19 that the law was added because of transgressions and in Romans 5:20 that it came in to increase the trespass, he means, first of all, that it functions like a doctor's prescription to show who trusts the doctor and who doesn't. By prescribing the obedience of faith, the law turns the hidden sin of distrust and rebellion into the open transgression of disobedience.

To Stir Up More Sin
There is a second sense in which the law came in to increase the trespass. The law doesn't just give visibility to present sin; it gives rise to more sin. Romans 5:20 says, "Law came in to increase the trespass," but it goes on to say, "But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." Sin doesn't just become visible in open trespasses; it increases. The rebellion and insubordination and distrust of the human heart intensifies and expands when it meets the law. This is clear from several verses in Romans 7. For example, verse 5, "While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death." The sinful inclinations of the heart are not just exposed by the law; they are aroused by the law. Here's why. Apart from the Holy Spirit our hearts are utterly self-centered, and when such a heart sees that it is being called into question and criticized by the authority of the law, it "seeks all the more furiously to defend itself" (Cranfield). And so the law increases sin by stirring up more self-assertion and by hardening people in their self-satisfaction.
Another example from Romans 7 is verse 8: "But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness." Covetousness is the kind of desire you have for something when you are not trusting in the mercy of God to satisfy you with all you need. How, then, did the law produce covetousness in Paul? Perhaps like this: the law held out blessings to Paul which he wanted; but instead of humbling himself to trust in God's mercy to provide them, Paul undertook a rigorous program of law-keeping in reliance on his own moral effort and sought the blessings of the law without trusting the mercy of God. And that is the essence of covetousness: the kind of desire you have for things when you are not trusting in the mercy of God. So the law increases sin even in those who set out to obey it, if they do it in their own strength and not by faith in the power which God supplies.

One last illustration from Romans 7:13, "Did that which is good (the law), then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good (the law), in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure." This verse mentions both senses in which the law increases trespasses. The first is "that sin might be shown to be sin." The second is that sin "might become sinful beyond measure." The law reveals sin, and the law intensifies sin. But Paul insists that the law is not itself sinful or evil. On the contrary, the fact that the human heart could take something as pure and good as the law of God and make it a vehicle of pride and selfish passion and covetousness and death shows how dreadfully corrupt the human heart is.

That gives us some understanding, then, of Galatians 3:19, "Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions." It was added to turn invisible sin into visible transgressions of law. It was added to stir up the insubordination and rebellion of the human heart and make it sinful beyond measure. Now let's look at verses 21 and 22: "Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not, for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture consigned all things to sin, that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." Verse 21 makes the same point as last week's message on 3:15–18: the law, which came 430 years after the promise to Abraham and his seed, is not an annulment or alteration of God's original covenant relation to Israel. As verse 21 says, it is not at all contrary to the promises. The promise was made in a final sense to the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ (3:16). But, as verse 21 implies, the law could not make alive. Instead, as verse 22 says, it shut up all people under sin. I think the word "scripture" (v. 22) refers to the written "law." So the text says: the purpose of the law was not to make people alive (and so short-circuit the work of Christ), but to hold them in sin until Christ came.

The Law's Impotence and Our Imprisonment
Now there are two crucial questions to ask, and they have the same answer, I think. So I will ask them together: Why couldn't the law make people alive? And why did it shut up people under sin? The answer is found again in Romans (8:3, 4). "God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do," (cf. Galatians 3:21), "sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Just like Galatians 3:21, Romans 8:3 says there was something the law could not do. It could not do away with sin in people's lives nor could it empower people with the Spirit. And so it could not make alive. So the reason the law could not give life (Galatians 3:21) was not due to its own defect but to a defect in the people. Romans 8:3 says the law was weak through the flesh. The reason the law compounded sin instead of giving life was that the recipients of the law were ruled by the flesh and devoid of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:7 describes the kind of mind which the law met with when it came: "The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed, it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
So the answer to our two crucial questions is the same: Why couldn't the law make people alive? Because they were ruled by the flesh and were without the renewing Spirit of God. Why did the law shut people up under sin? Because they were ruled by the flesh without the renewing Spirit of God. Or to put it another way: the law kept people in sin and did not give them life because it was not accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit to enable people to obey. Wherever the command of God is proclaimed (as it is in the law and in the gospel), but the sovereign, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is withheld, the natural self-centeredness of the human heart will express its rebellion, either by rejecting the law and living in immorality, or by embracing the law and living in legalistic morality. In either case (whether you are a self-reliant moral person or a self-reliant immoral person), the flesh, or the self-reliant ego, is in charge, and the result is bondage to sin and, finally, eternal death.

Israel, the Law, and God's Glorious Promise
Therefore, Paul's point in Galatians 3:19–22 is that God gave the law without giving the Holy Spirit to most Israelites, so that the deep rebellion of man could be exposed and so that sin would become exceedingly sinful (as it made the holy law a moral means of self-exaltation).
Moses himself had said in Deuteronomy 29:4, after giving Israel the law, "To this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear." And so he knew the law would not give life but only condemn. He said in Deuteronomy 31:26, 27, "Take this book of the law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are." The law increases transgressions and shuts people up under sin, not because it requires imperfect people to merit God's favor, but because it requires proud and independent people to humble themselves and depend on God's transforming mercy. The law is the aroma of death wherever those who smell it are rebellious and stubborn (cf. Hebrews 4:2).

But the story will have a happy ending. Moses sees a day of life coming. In Deuteronomy 30:6 he says: "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart . . . so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." Jeremiah picks up the prophecy in 31:33, "After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts." And Ezekiel picks it up in 36:26: "A new heart I will give you (says the Lord), and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances." And Paul announces in Romans 8:4 that with Christ the day has arrived. Sins are atoned for, and the Spirit has been poured out, and "the just requirement of the law is fulfilled by those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (See Galatians 3:5 for how to walk by the Spirit.)

Three Lessons
So what lessons are there for us in this text? I'll mention three in closing. First, God has devoted over a thousand years of history (from Moses to Christ) to help us see ourselves in the failures of Israel. He aims to make visible the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the depth and subtlety of our own pride and insubordination. Therefore, we should look and be appalled in the mirror of God's law. And we should admit that there are yet roots of independence and pride and distrust to be dug out.

Second, we should cherish Christ and adore the grace that opened our hearts to receive him. The lesson of the law is that we are utterly dependent on grace to remove our heart of stone and give us a soft heart of faith and love. Contrition, humility, lowliness, gratitude—let your heart be filled with these as you recall, "Where sin abounded, grace much more abounded" (Romans 5:20).

Finally, if God thought it wise and helpful not to let the sediment of pride and rebellion and distrust lie quietly at the bottom of the human heart, but instead, stirred it up and made it visible by demanding the obedience which comes from faith, then that's what my preaching should aim to do. More than ever I see the need for pastors to preach and Sunday School teachers to teach and members to admonish each other in such a way that the sediment of sin in the lives of so-called "carnal Christians" be stirred up and come to a crisis. Could it be that one of the reasons we see raindrops of blessing at Bethlehem instead of showers is that week after week several dozen people sit in these services with a layer of sinful muck at the bottom of their lives with no intention of doing anything about it? If so, let's pray that God use the Word to stir it up, so it can be seen for what it is, so there can be repentance and forgiveness and cleansing and renewal.

Whew, some more are coming!

The Sale of Joseph and the Son of God

This is an awesome sermon by John Piper, a bit long, and if you prefer click on the title above and go directly to his site and Download the audio or whatever!!

I hope you are blessed by one of the greatest authors and preachers of our day.

Genesis 37:1-36

Astonishing Words to Abram

Before we retell the story of Joseph and the spectacular sin of his brothers and its global purpose in the glory of Jesus Christ, let’s back up to Genesis 12. God has chosen Abram from all the peoples of the world by free grace and owing to nothing in him. In Genesis 12:2-3, God makes him a promise: “I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” This is the beginning of the people of Israel through whom Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God will come into the world to save us from our sins.
Then in chapter 15, God makes a formal covenant with Abram. He uses a remarkable symbolic act and some astonishing words. He says to Abram in Genesis 15:13-16, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. . . . And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Four Hundred Years!

So at the very beginning of his covenant relationship with his chosen people, God predicts a 400-year stay in Egypt and the return to the promised land. “They will be afflicted 400 years.” He has his strange reasons why they must leave for four centuries (think of it!) and not inherit the land now, namely, verse 15: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” When the Israelites come back to take the land under Joshua in 400 years, they will destroy these nations. How are we to understand that? Deuteronomy 9:5 gives God’s answer: “Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” The conquest of the promised land is the judgment of God on the fullness of centuries of wickedness.

God’s People Enter Through Many Afflictions

In the meantime, God says that his people will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be afflicted for 400 years, namely, in Egypt. So there is God’s plan for his pilgrim people—a kind of picture of your life on this earth until heaven. If God plans 400 years of affliction for his people (Genesis 15:13) before the promised land, we should not be surprised that he says to us “through many tribulations you must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Prophecy Fulfilled Through a Spectacular Sin
The question for us today is: How will it come about that God’s people wind up in Egypt? And what does God want to teach about his ways and about his Son in this strange sojourn in Egypt? The answer is that God fulfills this prophecy through a spectacular sin. And through this sin, he preserves alive not only his covenant people of Israel, but also the line from which the Lion of Judah would come to save and rule the peoples. So huge things are at stake in the story of Joseph.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Going back to Abram, let’s bring the story up to Joseph. Abram has a son Isaac. Isaac has a son Jacob (whose other name is Israel), and Jacob has twelve sons who become the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. One of Jacob’s twelve sons, Joseph, has two dreams. In both of them, his eleven brothers and his parents bow down to him. Genesis 37:8 says his brothers hated him for these dreams. And verse 11 says they were jealous.

Destroying the Dreamer

The day came when they could vent their rage against their brother. His father sends him to see if it is well with his brothers (Genesis 37:14). They see him coming and say in verses 19-20, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” Reuben tries to save Joseph but his attempt is only partly successful when the brothers sell Joseph as a slave to a caravan of Ishmaelites heading for Egypt (v. 25). They keep his special coat, soak it in animal blood, and his father assumes he was eaten by wild animals. The brothers think that is the end of that.

An Invisible Hand at Work

But they have no idea what is happening. They are utterly oblivious to God’s invisible hand in their action. They do not know that in the very effort to destroy this dreamer, they are fulfilling Joseph’s dreams. Oh, how often God works this way! He takes the very sins of the destroyers and makes them the means of the destroyers’ deliverance.

Potiphar, Prison, and Providence

In Egypt, Joseph is bought by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard (Genesis 37:36). There Joseph submits to God’s strange providence and serves Potiphar faithfully. He rises with trust and influence over Potiphar’s household. And you would think that the righteous would prosper. But it seems to be otherwise. Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph. He flees adultery. And the spurned woman is vicious and lies about Joseph. And in spite of his righteousness, he is put in prison.
In prison, again, totally unaware of what God is doing in all this misery, he again serves the jailer faithfully and is given trust and responsibility. Through the interpretation of two dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker, Joseph is eventually brought out of prison to interpret one of Pharoah’s dreams. His interpretation proves true and his wisdom seems compelling to Pharaoh, and Joseph is made commander in Egypt. “You shall be over my house,” Pharaoh says, “and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you” (Genesis 41:40).

The Dreams Fulfilled

Seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine strike the land, just as Joseph said they would. Joseph preempts starvation in Egypt by gathering huge reserves of grain during the seven good years. Eventually, Joseph’s brothers hear that there is grain in Egypt, and they go for help. They don’t recognize their brother at first, but eventually he reveals himself. He had been seventeen years old when they sold him into slavery (37:2) and now when he tells them who he is he is thirty-nine years old (41:46, 53; 45:6). Twenty-two years had gone by. They are stunned. They tried to get rid of the dreamer, and in getting rid of him, they fulfilled his dreams.

The brothers are bowing down at last to Joseph.

Eventually, he invites them to live in Egypt to save their lives, and the fulfillment of the distant prophecy that Abraham’s seed would sojourn 400 years in Egypt begins. So we ask again, How did it come about that God’s people wind up in Egypt in fulfillment of God’s plan? And what does God want to teach us about his ways and about his Son in this strange sojourn in Egypt?

Two Biblical Descriptions of This Fulfillment

The answer to how the people wound up in Egypt is clear at one level: They got there by means of the spectacular sin of attempted murder, greedy slave-dealing, and the heartless deceit of a broken-hearted old man. But how does the Bible describe this fulfillment of God’s prophecy? In two ways.

1) God Sent Joseph to Preserve Life
First, in Genesis 45:5, Joseph says to his brothers who are very afraid of him, “Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” The first way the Bible describes this spectacular sin of the brothers is that it was God’s way of sending Joseph to Egypt in order to save the very ones who were trying to kill him.

“God sent me before you.”

And lest we think this was a side comment with little significance, we read the very same thing in Psalm 105:16-17—only there the stakes are raised even higher. Not only was God ruling the actions of these brothers to get Joseph to Egypt, but God was ruling the famine as well: “When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.” So put out of your mind the thought that God foresaw a famine happening on its own or happening by Satan. God summoned the famine. And God prepared the deliverance.

2) What Man Designed for Evil, God Designed for Good
So the first way the Bible describes the fulfillment of God’s prophecy that his people would come to Egypt is by saying God sent Joseph there ahead of them. The second way the Bible describes this prophecy is even more penetrating and sweeping. The brothers come before Joseph again, this time after the death of their father, and they are again afraid he will take vengeance on them. In Genesis 50:19-20, Joseph says, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

The second way the Bible describes the way God fulfilled his prophecy is: The brothers meant the sale of Joseph for evil, but God meant it for good. Notice it does not say that God used their evil for good after they meant it for evil. It says that in the very act of evil, there were two different designs: In the sinful act, they were designing evil, and in the same sinful act, God was designing good.

Pointing, Life-Saving Sin

This is what we have seen and will see over and over: What man designs—or the devil designs—for evil, God designs for some great good. The great good mentioned in Genesis 45:5 is “to preserve life.” And the great good mentioned in Genesis 50:20 is “to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” But in those words, and the whole story of how God saves his people, are pointers to the global purpose of this sin—this life-saving sin—in the glory of Jesus Christ.

Three Pointers to the Glory of Jesus

Let’s look at three things in this story that prepare us to see the glory of Jesus and who he really is.

1) Salvation Comes Through Sin and Suffering
First, we see the general pattern that turns up over and over in the Bible, namely, that God’s saving victory for his people often comes through sin and suffering. Joseph’s brothers sinned against him, and he suffered for it. And in all this, God is at work to save his people—including the very ones who are trying to destroy the savior. The fact that Jesus came this way should not have been as surprising to as many people as it was. That he was sinned against and suffered on the way to save his people is what we would expect from this pattern that turns up again and again.
So in the story of Joseph and the spectacular sin of his brothers, we are being prepared to see the glory of Christ—his patience and humility and servanthood, all the while saving the very ones who were trying to get rid of him.
Died He for me, who caused His pain—for me, who Him to death pursued?Amazing love! how can it bethat Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2) The Suffering One Is Righteous
Second, the story of Joseph and the spectacular sin of his brothers prepare us to see Jesus not just because of the general pattern that God’s saving victory for his people often comes through suffering and sin, but more specifically, in this case, because the very one who is suffering and being sinned against is so righteous. Joseph stands out in this story for his amazing constancy and faithfulness to every relationship. Even in undeserved exile, he’s faithful to Potiphar and he is faithful to the jailer. Genesis 39:22: “The keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.”
And what was Joseph’s reward? He was lied about by Potiphar’s wife, and the cupbearer of Pharaoh, whose dream Joseph interpreted, thanklessly forgot about him in prison for two years after the dreams. So the point of all this is not just that there is sin and suffering and that God is at work in it to save his people. More specifically, the point is that the righteous one, even though mistreated for so long, is finally vindicated by God. Even though others have rejected this righteous stone, God makes him the cornerstone (Matthew 21:42). His vindication becomes the very means of the salvation of his persecutors.
Jesus Christ is the final and ultimate and perfect righteous one (Acts 7:52). It looked to others as if his life was going so badly that he must be a sinner. But in the end, all the sin against him, and all the suffering he endured in perfect righteousness, led to his vindication and, because of it, to our salvation. If Joseph is amazing in his steadfastness, Jesus is ten thousand times more amazing, because he experienced ten thousand times more suffering and deserved it ten thousand times less, and was perfectly steadfast, faithful, and righteous through it all.

3) The Scepter Will Not Depart from Judah
There are other parallels in this story between Joseph and Jesus, but we turn now to the most important thing in this story about Jesus and it is not a parallel with Joseph. It’s a prophecy about the coming of Jesus, which could not have happened if these sinful sons of Jacob had starved in the famine. The spectacular sin of these brothers was God’s way of saving the tribe of Judah from extinction so that the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ, would be born and die and rise and reign over all the peoples of the world.
We see this most clearly in Genesis 49:8-10. Jacob, the father, is about to die, and before he dies, he pronounces a prophetic blessing over all his sons. Here is what he says about his son Judah:
Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Here is a prophecy of the coming final king of Israel, the Lion of Judah, the Messiah. Notice in verse 10 that the scepter—the ruler’s staff, the sign of the king—will be in the line of Judah until one comes who is no ordinary king, because all the peoples, not just Israel, will obey him. Verse 10b: “To him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

This is fulfilled in Jesus. Listen to the way John describes Jesus’ role in heaven after his crucifixion and resurrection: “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. . . . And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth’” (Revelation 5:5, 9-10).

The Lion of Judah Is the Lamb Who Was Slain

The most magnificent thing about the Lion of the tribe of Judah in his fulfillment of Jacob’s prophecy is that he lays claim on the obedience of all the peoples of the world not by exploiting our guilt and crushing us with it into submission, but by bearing our guilt and freeing us to love him and praise him and obey with joy forever. The Lion of Judah is the Lamb who was slain. He wins our obedience by forgiving our sins and making his own obedience, his own perfection as the righteous one, the basis of our acceptance with God. And in this position of immeasurable safety and joy—all of it owing to his suffering and righteousness and death and resurrection—he wins our free and happy obedience.

The story of Joseph is the story of a righteous one who is sinned against and suffers so that tribe of Judah would be preserved and a Lion would come forth, and would prove to be a Lamb-like Lion, and by his suffering and death, purchase and empower glad obedience from all the nations—even from those who put him to death.
Does he have yours?

Aight ya, c'ya later!~

Friday, September 7

Juanita Bynum

This is how this post started, and progressed...

Originally posted by The Expositor:
Juanita Bynum
“You’ve got three days to get that into your mailbox. I’m not afraid to say this. I am walking in my authority… if you don’t postmark it by the tenth, we will not accept it. God says you have three days to get your thousand-dollar seed in the mail.” I was watching TBN the night she said this. Of course, I couldn't watch it for long. This is an example of a false prophecy. She claims to speak for God here. She states that God said someone has three days to get a thousand dollar seed in the mail.First of all, I doubt that if it was postmarked after the tenth, they wouldn't accept it. I can't see them turning away from potentially thousands of dollars.Secondly, if the seed-faith teaching is heresy, which it is, then she is absolutely speaking falsely and claiming it to be God. This is totally contradictory to Scripture. In the New Testament, we see God telling believers to give out of the abundance of their hearts, not grudgingly or of necessity, but giving cheerfully. This is just one example, which Links asked for. Also, there is something prophetic happening when a person preaches from a prophetic book. That's why it's so important that those who desire to be teachers, are first life-long students, so that they are rightfully dividing the word of truth.

Rob posted in response:
Can you prove that the "seed, time and harvest" teaching is heresy? I actually see it in the Bible.

Jenn posted:
I watched her when she was on TBN the other night and she, herself, decreed that people would be healed. She has no power to do this; this is false representation. Only God has decreeing power. She is deceitful and she knows she is false, and she is leading thousands of people away from God.I pray that God would grant her repentance...


The Expositor: Last posting on this blog before my comments!
Job 22:28 has been talked about by myself at least a few times here on the board. But, I'll go over it again. First, let's establish the speaker here:Job 22:1 ¶ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, It was Eliphaz the Temanite who chose to spoke as if he knew God. Firstly, the Temanites were descendants of Ishmael. They would currently be some of your modern day Muslims or other Arabs. Temanites were not believers in the God of Israel. Now, what did he say? Well, he said a lot of stuff, but you, like others, have chosen to take this one scripture verse way out of context and apply it to the believer's "authority".Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways. So, what did God say in response to Eliphaz's declaration?
Quote:
Job 42:7 ¶ And it was [so], that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me [the thing that is] right, as my servant Job [hath]. Job 42:8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you [after your] folly, in that ye have not spoken of me [the thing which is] right, like my servant Job. God's wrath was kindled against Eliphaz and the other two as well. But God directly responded to Eliphaz. If it weren't for the fact that Eliphaz was a friend of Job, God would have dealt with him harshly. But, for Job, God accept the sacrifice.So, that kills any argument about "decreeing a thing". Last time I checked, in the economy of a kingdom, only the king has the power to decree anything. As far as God reaping a harvest of sons? That kind of teaching would necessitate the thought that God had a need, and so He sowed according to His need. But peep this:
Quote:
Psa 50:9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, [nor] he goats out of thy folds. Psa 50:10 For every beast of the forest [is] mine, [and] the cattle upon a thousand hills. Psa 50:11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field [are] mine. Psa 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world [is] mine, and the fulness thereof. God owns everything. He needs nothing from us. Even if He WERE hungry, He'd never tell us. He needs nothing. He has everything and self-sufficient within Himself.
Quote:
Mat 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to [our] father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. God is God. He is not a man having needs. He never lost a thing. He never needed to do anything to reap sons. He could have simply raised up children afresh, unstained with sin. He could have created a new race of people who would ONLY worship Him. The seed faith message is a message of works, not grace. It turns the doctrine of grace into a doctrine of works, and makes man sovereign over God. For if we give, God MUST give in return. The seed faith has a low view of God AND scripture, and a high view of man and his "faith". The seed faith message says that God cannot act or will not act until WE do something. It makes God impotent unless we "allow" Him to bless us. Yet, the God of the Bible, the God I serve, is OMNIPOTENT and completely sovereign.
Quote:
Dan 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth [are] reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and [among] the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? God answers to no one.


My synopsis:
This last posting is a prime example of Biblically true Exposition of the Scriptures, background, audience and historical consistency throughout the text. Man we need more of this from the pulpit, people get consumed with miracles and signs, and neglect the simple yet profound truths of the Scriptures that dont contradict itself!! Them signs and wonders are temporal, never long lasting and rarely truly convert!! The gospel must be preached to convert the soul, an unrepented heart cant proclaim the truth and the Gospel!


Galatians 3:24 (Therefore the Law has become our [1 Cor 4:15] tutor to lead us to Christ, so that [Gal 2:16] we may be justified by faith.

Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

Hey if you offended by this post, I am not apologizing this is the Truth proclaimed, and I aint ashamed 0f the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Young and Unashamed >>Romans 1:16, you got a problem go take it up with YOUR god or bring it to my GOD, and have them scales removed! I say it in this manner because if you proclaim that your god and doctrine allow for such a claim, such as the one discussed in the dialogue concerning Bynum above, then we obviously serve a different god, its not ok for you to feel a certain way about certain scriptures because it suits your character, views and perspective. Im sorry but I am not gonna sit back and accept everything that gets thrown my way, matter of fact this is my Blog and I can express myself here at the least, right? My convictions are based on Biblical principles and I know God honors His WORD! There are no contradictions in my Bible, therefore my argument is backed up by my standards, the Holy Scriptures.

Sola Scriptura - Scriptures Alone!

Won, let me keep chewing! Go check the link this dialogue came from Click on the Yellow Juanita Bynum title in the begining of this post!

Won, Les
Back to the top