What Shall I Do - Part Thirteen Feb 05, 2023 by: John Herbert | Series: What Shall I Do... Audio Study Notes PDF Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. We will continue today to look at the old man and the new. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday February 5th 2023 What Shall I Do…….. Part 13 1). Ro 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. We had seen last time that to be separated from what Scripture calls, ‘the world’ we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And we had also seen that there is an inextricable connection between our separation from ‘the world’ and separation from our ‘old man’, as both are brought about through the same process, ‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind’. It is not possible to do one without the other. a). And we had seen that our new man, the man of the spirit, is to be separated from our old man, by faith, as we accept and receive what Scripture says about it, as our mind is renewed - Ro 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. I am sure that we have read and understood v6-7 for a very long time but there must come a point when what we know becomes the reality of our faith. As with forgiveness, these things do not depend on our feelings, rather they depend entirely upon what the Scripture says. Believing this and conducting ourselves in accordance with it, is to have faith to the saving of the soul and will come about through our transformation as our mind is renewed. b). And to have faith after this fashion will transition us from slaves of sin to slaves of righteousness. And this transition from the one to the other we can understand as being the same as our change of allegiance from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Christ – Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. And because of this change of allegiance from ‘slaves of sin’ to ‘slaves of righteousness’ we are to ‘put off the old man with his deeds’ who ‘grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts’ - Col 3:8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. The deceitful lusts, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are readily seen in anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language [not an exhaustive list], to which we can add fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, from earlier in Chapter 3, all of which must be put off through believing that our old man was crucified with Christ, and putting on the new man, created in true righteousness and holiness, instead. c). And we can see from Colossians 3:10 that our new man is to be continually ‘renewed’ day by day in ‘epignosis’ knowledge. And we will note here that the word ‘renewed’ in Colossians 3:10 is a derivative of the word used in both Romans and Ephesians, and in its use in Colossians, has to do with ‘growing up’. d). In the verses from Romans and Ephesians, that we began with today, we have seen that our mind must be renewed, a complete change for the better, and from what we are told in Colossians, we can see that the renewing of our mind and the continual ‘growing up’ of our new man, are one and the same process, and all with a particular end result in view Ro 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 1 Co15:49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God…….. To the extent that we allow our mind to be renewed, will be the degree to which we will grow in spiritual maturity and be transformed into the image of the Lord. Not transformed in a physical sense, but in the way we think and the way we will subsequently conduct our lives – Php 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the [out] resurrection from the dead. And if we choose to allow our minds to be renewed, so that we ‘may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings’ choosing to be conformed to His death in order to attain the goal of the out-resurrection from among the dead, then in that Day, we will be transformed into His image and likeness in a tangible way – 1 Jn 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. The renewing of our mind to bring growth to the new man resulting in separation from the old man, becomes a matter of personal submission to being a ‘slave of righteousness’, personal submission to the Word of Truth. And this process, although a personal choice, must be placed within the context of the properly functioning Church. Which takes us again to - Eph 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…… And as we know that the Lord is the Word made flesh, we will realize that it is only through receiving the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, that our mind can be renewed; only through receiving the Word of Truth that we can come to the unity of the faith and the ‘epignosis’ knowledge of the Son of God, only through receiving the Word of Truth that we will come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to spiritual maturity, that we may know Him. And only through receiving the Word of Truth that our new man can grow, putting off the old man who has been crucified with Christ and be transformed into the image of our Lord - Jas 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. It is the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, alone then that can bring about the metamorphosis, that can grow us up spiritually and change us into the image of our Lord. And it is through the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, alone that we can constantly see our old man as crucified. And it is the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, alone that can wash us with water that we may enter the holy place and be in the light as He is in the light and be like-minded with Him through a renewed mind. e). And because of what we have been studying, we will hopefully be determined to continually see our ‘old man’ as crucified with Christ, so as to keep him as the living sacrifice, pictured for us through the imagery of the bronze altar in the outer court of the Tabernacle where the sacrifice for sin was made. And then, as works from our sin nature inevitably surface in our present, so we will find cleansing from our High Priest through confession, through speaking the same about our sin as He does, pictured for us through the washing of hands at the bronze laver –1 Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is the blood of Jesus Christ His Son shed on the cross where our old man was crucified with Him, that cleanses us from all sin, and this is pictured for us in - Le 17:11 'For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.' And no doubt as we consider this, we will see the inextricable connection between putting to death the deeds of the body and the confession of sin and the cleansing which follows. As we confess our sin, which is the reemergence of our old man, so, by faith, our old man is brought in line with the reality of the death he experienced through being crucified with Christ, and the Lord’s blood takes that sin away and thereby our old man is put off. f). To deal with our sin in this way, which we must accept by faith, can only be accomplished through receiving the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, as we have seen, so that our mind will be completely changed for the better to align our thinking with the truth of Scripture. g). And for anyone who would choose not to participate in this process, then we can return to the imagery from the Tabernacle in the Wilderness to view the consequences, something implicit from an earlier Chapter in Leviticus - Le 7:17 'the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire. And this imagery from Leviticus we can find again in - 1 Co 3:12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 2). Let’s take this a step further - 1Pe 4:1 ¶ Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. And let’s keep in mind that to be armed with the ‘same mind’ as Christ to cease from sin and live ‘for the will of God’, is not separation for its own sake, but separation because of the hope that is set before us. It is because we have heard the Word of the Kingdom, the gospel of the glory of Christ, and have believed that which God has said about our appearance at the Lord’s Judgment Seat in relation to this, that this separation is not only necessary but also a matter of urgency. These are things that should constantly be in the forefront of our mind as our mind is renewed – 2 Pe 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. And as we read these verses from 2 Peter, it is interesting for us to compare what the Lord had commanded the nation of Israel with respect to receiving the inheritance that He had promised them – De 6:6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. What we will glean from these verses is that the Lord had commanded His people, because of the inheritance on offer to them, to always keep the Word He had given to them concerning it, at the forefront of their minds, from their waking in the morning to their sleep at night. It was to be embraced in every part of their lives, both outside of their home and within their family. It’s what they were to diligently teach to their children. a). And although these verses are applicable to the Jewish people, we cannot overlook the secondary application for ourselves. We have been given the gospel of the glory of Christ that we must keep in the forefront of our minds from the time we wake to the time we sleep, and it will be this gospel that we diligently teach to our children. There can be nothing more important in the life of the one pursuing His Kingdom and His righteousness than the ‘so great salvation’ that is offered to us – Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. The subject of the end of v21 and into v22 takes us right back to foundation, back to the building of the Woman and her presentation to Adam in Genesis Chapter 2 – Ge 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said:“This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. The type given here of the building of the Woman, pictures Christ’s present work of transformation in us, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit’s search for a bride, both moving towards a glorious conclusion. b). But note the word that begins v23 in the verses from Colossians Chapter 1, ‘IF’, the glorious conclusion we long for, remains conditional. It is conditional upon us continuing in, or adhering to, the Word of Truth, having faith to the saving of the soul. Conditional upon being established on the foundation, being ‘grounded and steadfast’, to not be moved away from the hope of the good news of the glory of Christ that we have received through the preaching of the whole counsel of God. c). So, what would it look like for us to be grounded and steadfast in order not to be moved away from our hope? Well, having the focus, the seriousness, and the sincerity, that we witnessed in the verses we read from Deuteronomy Chapter 6, as we continue in our process of separation. And in conjunction with this, we will also take these verses into consideration – Ex 31:14 You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ” The sign of the Sabbath given to the Jewish people is inextricably linked to the establishment of God’s purpose laid out in the first thirty four verses of Genesis, six days of work to be followed by a Seventh Day of rest; the Day that God has determined to be His focus throughout His written revelation to the eternally saved – Ge 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. The sign of the Sabbath pointed to that future Day when the present system of rulership would be overthrown, and a redeemed Jewish people would rule at the head of the nations within a Theocracy. And the seriousness of keeping that pictured in the sign of the Sabbath uppermost in the Jewish mind, is seen in the fact that anyone who profaned the Sabbath would ‘surely be put to death’. d). Now Christians have not been given the ‘sign of the Sabbath’ as a sign is only for the Jew. However, the Seventh Day is the Day that must be the subject of our thinking; it is the Day that we are to honor and respect and look for above all others, the Day that is central to the Word of the Kingdom. It is the Day that should be in our mind when we lie down and when we rise up; it is the foundation upon which we are built that we might be grounded and steadfast. It is the Day of the realization of our hope – Col 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ proclaimed among you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And should we profane the Seventh Day, treating it carelessly, seen through the way we live our lives in anticipation of it, then at the Judgment Seat we shall ‘surely be put to death’. We will find ourselves separated from the Seventh Day, having no part in God’s purpose for us, having spurned the reason for which God, in the person of Son, died and shed His blood. And of course, once lost to us, the Seventh Day can never be reclaimed. It is ours to lose or ours to gain. ‘What shall I do…’ keep the Seventh Day ever before us. Let it become as real and as tangible as the seat upon which we sit. Let us realize that it is for this Day that our Lord was begotten and for this Day that we have been saved, that we are being saved and that we will be saved. 3). And continuing with the Seventh Day - Mt 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. In proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Heavens, which was at hand, the Lord had declared to the Jewish people the imminence of the Seventh Day to which the sign of the Sabbath, kept throughout their generations, pointed. a). And in the proclamation of this good news and the accompanying supernatural signs, was the very Word that God had promised the Jewish people concerning their healing and deliverance in this Day, the Word which they had been commanded to diligently teach to their children and keep ever before them, as we had read in Deuteronomy Chapter 6. b). And yet, for the Jewish people, despite having this Word ever before them that foretold of the coming of Messiah and His Day, and despite, on pain of death, keeping the Sabbath every week throughout their generations, both their King, the Word made flesh, and His Kingdom, the Seventh Day, were rejected. Not by an unsaved people but by those who had spiritual life, those who had more than a rudimentary understanding of God’s purpose for them. c). And why did such a thing happen? Because on the one hand, Satan had begun his deceptive work among the Jewish people from the moment the first Jewish foot stepped outside of Egypt in anticipation of Messiah’s Advent. And on the other hand, because, under the direction of their religious leaders, the Jewish people had been turned away from the Word of Truth. No doubt we will remember from a few weeks back, what the Scriptures record about them – Jer 50:6 “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; They have forgotten their resting place. Or, we could say it this way, that they never made the three days’ journey to worship the God of their fathers – Jn 19:15 But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!” Now, we know as a result of Israel’s rejection of the Kingdom of the Heavens, that the Church, the new creation in Christ, was brought into existence to be the recipient of that which Israel had rejected. d). And we also know that the Kingdom of the Heavens was then re-offered to the same generation of eternally saved Jews who were alive at the time of the Lord’s first Advent, throughout the time covered by the Book of Acts, by the Church, as national repentance on Israel’s part would still have remained possible while that generation was alive. e). And we know that the reoffer of the Kingdom of the heavens was again rejected by that same generation of Jews, leaving the offer of the Kingdom in the hands of the ‘Church’ alone, those taken primarily from among the Gentile nations, even to today. But this we will have to continue with this next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and someone has prayed for us. What Shall I Do - Part Thirteen Feb 05, 2023 Speaker: John Herbert Series: What Shall I Do... Category: Sunday Morning Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. We will continue today to look at the old man and the new. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday February 5th 2023 What Shall I Do…….. Part 13 1). Ro 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. We had seen last time that to be separated from what Scripture calls, ‘the world’ we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And we had also seen that there is an inextricable connection between our separation from ‘the world’ and separation from our ‘old man’, as both are brought about through the same process, ‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind’. It is not possible to do one without the other. a). And we had seen that our new man, the man of the spirit, is to be separated from our old man, by faith, as we accept and receive what Scripture says about it, as our mind is renewed - Ro 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. I am sure that we have read and understood v6-7 for a very long time but there must come a point when what we know becomes the reality of our faith. As with forgiveness, these things do not depend on our feelings, rather they depend entirely upon what the Scripture says. Believing this and conducting ourselves in accordance with it, is to have faith to the saving of the soul and will come about through our transformation as our mind is renewed. b). And to have faith after this fashion will transition us from slaves of sin to slaves of righteousness. And this transition from the one to the other we can understand as being the same as our change of allegiance from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Christ – Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. And because of this change of allegiance from ‘slaves of sin’ to ‘slaves of righteousness’ we are to ‘put off the old man with his deeds’ who ‘grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts’ - Col 3:8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. The deceitful lusts, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are readily seen in anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language [not an exhaustive list], to which we can add fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, from earlier in Chapter 3, all of which must be put off through believing that our old man was crucified with Christ, and putting on the new man, created in true righteousness and holiness, instead. c). And we can see from Colossians 3:10 that our new man is to be continually ‘renewed’ day by day in ‘epignosis’ knowledge. And we will note here that the word ‘renewed’ in Colossians 3:10 is a derivative of the word used in both Romans and Ephesians, and in its use in Colossians, has to do with ‘growing up’. d). In the verses from Romans and Ephesians, that we began with today, we have seen that our mind must be renewed, a complete change for the better, and from what we are told in Colossians, we can see that the renewing of our mind and the continual ‘growing up’ of our new man, are one and the same process, and all with a particular end result in view Ro 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 1 Co15:49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God…….. To the extent that we allow our mind to be renewed, will be the degree to which we will grow in spiritual maturity and be transformed into the image of the Lord. Not transformed in a physical sense, but in the way we think and the way we will subsequently conduct our lives – Php 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the [out] resurrection from the dead. And if we choose to allow our minds to be renewed, so that we ‘may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings’ choosing to be conformed to His death in order to attain the goal of the out-resurrection from among the dead, then in that Day, we will be transformed into His image and likeness in a tangible way – 1 Jn 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. The renewing of our mind to bring growth to the new man resulting in separation from the old man, becomes a matter of personal submission to being a ‘slave of righteousness’, personal submission to the Word of Truth. And this process, although a personal choice, must be placed within the context of the properly functioning Church. Which takes us again to - Eph 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…… And as we know that the Lord is the Word made flesh, we will realize that it is only through receiving the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, that our mind can be renewed; only through receiving the Word of Truth that we can come to the unity of the faith and the ‘epignosis’ knowledge of the Son of God, only through receiving the Word of Truth that we will come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to spiritual maturity, that we may know Him. And only through receiving the Word of Truth that our new man can grow, putting off the old man who has been crucified with Christ and be transformed into the image of our Lord - Jas 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. It is the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, alone then that can bring about the metamorphosis, that can grow us up spiritually and change us into the image of our Lord. And it is through the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, alone that we can constantly see our old man as crucified. And it is the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, alone that can wash us with water that we may enter the holy place and be in the light as He is in the light and be like-minded with Him through a renewed mind. e). And because of what we have been studying, we will hopefully be determined to continually see our ‘old man’ as crucified with Christ, so as to keep him as the living sacrifice, pictured for us through the imagery of the bronze altar in the outer court of the Tabernacle where the sacrifice for sin was made. And then, as works from our sin nature inevitably surface in our present, so we will find cleansing from our High Priest through confession, through speaking the same about our sin as He does, pictured for us through the washing of hands at the bronze laver –1 Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is the blood of Jesus Christ His Son shed on the cross where our old man was crucified with Him, that cleanses us from all sin, and this is pictured for us in - Le 17:11 'For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.' And no doubt as we consider this, we will see the inextricable connection between putting to death the deeds of the body and the confession of sin and the cleansing which follows. As we confess our sin, which is the reemergence of our old man, so, by faith, our old man is brought in line with the reality of the death he experienced through being crucified with Christ, and the Lord’s blood takes that sin away and thereby our old man is put off. f). To deal with our sin in this way, which we must accept by faith, can only be accomplished through receiving the Word of Truth, the Word of the Kingdom, as we have seen, so that our mind will be completely changed for the better to align our thinking with the truth of Scripture. g). And for anyone who would choose not to participate in this process, then we can return to the imagery from the Tabernacle in the Wilderness to view the consequences, something implicit from an earlier Chapter in Leviticus - Le 7:17 'the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire. And this imagery from Leviticus we can find again in - 1 Co 3:12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 2). Let’s take this a step further - 1Pe 4:1 ¶ Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. And let’s keep in mind that to be armed with the ‘same mind’ as Christ to cease from sin and live ‘for the will of God’, is not separation for its own sake, but separation because of the hope that is set before us. It is because we have heard the Word of the Kingdom, the gospel of the glory of Christ, and have believed that which God has said about our appearance at the Lord’s Judgment Seat in relation to this, that this separation is not only necessary but also a matter of urgency. These are things that should constantly be in the forefront of our mind as our mind is renewed – 2 Pe 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. And as we read these verses from 2 Peter, it is interesting for us to compare what the Lord had commanded the nation of Israel with respect to receiving the inheritance that He had promised them – De 6:6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. What we will glean from these verses is that the Lord had commanded His people, because of the inheritance on offer to them, to always keep the Word He had given to them concerning it, at the forefront of their minds, from their waking in the morning to their sleep at night. It was to be embraced in every part of their lives, both outside of their home and within their family. It’s what they were to diligently teach to their children. a). And although these verses are applicable to the Jewish people, we cannot overlook the secondary application for ourselves. We have been given the gospel of the glory of Christ that we must keep in the forefront of our minds from the time we wake to the time we sleep, and it will be this gospel that we diligently teach to our children. There can be nothing more important in the life of the one pursuing His Kingdom and His righteousness than the ‘so great salvation’ that is offered to us – Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. The subject of the end of v21 and into v22 takes us right back to foundation, back to the building of the Woman and her presentation to Adam in Genesis Chapter 2 – Ge 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said:“This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. The type given here of the building of the Woman, pictures Christ’s present work of transformation in us, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit’s search for a bride, both moving towards a glorious conclusion. b). But note the word that begins v23 in the verses from Colossians Chapter 1, ‘IF’, the glorious conclusion we long for, remains conditional. It is conditional upon us continuing in, or adhering to, the Word of Truth, having faith to the saving of the soul. Conditional upon being established on the foundation, being ‘grounded and steadfast’, to not be moved away from the hope of the good news of the glory of Christ that we have received through the preaching of the whole counsel of God. c). So, what would it look like for us to be grounded and steadfast in order not to be moved away from our hope? Well, having the focus, the seriousness, and the sincerity, that we witnessed in the verses we read from Deuteronomy Chapter 6, as we continue in our process of separation. And in conjunction with this, we will also take these verses into consideration – Ex 31:14 You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ” The sign of the Sabbath given to the Jewish people is inextricably linked to the establishment of God’s purpose laid out in the first thirty four verses of Genesis, six days of work to be followed by a Seventh Day of rest; the Day that God has determined to be His focus throughout His written revelation to the eternally saved – Ge 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. The sign of the Sabbath pointed to that future Day when the present system of rulership would be overthrown, and a redeemed Jewish people would rule at the head of the nations within a Theocracy. And the seriousness of keeping that pictured in the sign of the Sabbath uppermost in the Jewish mind, is seen in the fact that anyone who profaned the Sabbath would ‘surely be put to death’. d). Now Christians have not been given the ‘sign of the Sabbath’ as a sign is only for the Jew. However, the Seventh Day is the Day that must be the subject of our thinking; it is the Day that we are to honor and respect and look for above all others, the Day that is central to the Word of the Kingdom. It is the Day that should be in our mind when we lie down and when we rise up; it is the foundation upon which we are built that we might be grounded and steadfast. It is the Day of the realization of our hope – Col 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ proclaimed among you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And should we profane the Seventh Day, treating it carelessly, seen through the way we live our lives in anticipation of it, then at the Judgment Seat we shall ‘surely be put to death’. We will find ourselves separated from the Seventh Day, having no part in God’s purpose for us, having spurned the reason for which God, in the person of Son, died and shed His blood. And of course, once lost to us, the Seventh Day can never be reclaimed. It is ours to lose or ours to gain. ‘What shall I do…’ keep the Seventh Day ever before us. Let it become as real and as tangible as the seat upon which we sit. Let us realize that it is for this Day that our Lord was begotten and for this Day that we have been saved, that we are being saved and that we will be saved. 3). And continuing with the Seventh Day - Mt 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. In proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Heavens, which was at hand, the Lord had declared to the Jewish people the imminence of the Seventh Day to which the sign of the Sabbath, kept throughout their generations, pointed. a). And in the proclamation of this good news and the accompanying supernatural signs, was the very Word that God had promised the Jewish people concerning their healing and deliverance in this Day, the Word which they had been commanded to diligently teach to their children and keep ever before them, as we had read in Deuteronomy Chapter 6. b). And yet, for the Jewish people, despite having this Word ever before them that foretold of the coming of Messiah and His Day, and despite, on pain of death, keeping the Sabbath every week throughout their generations, both their King, the Word made flesh, and His Kingdom, the Seventh Day, were rejected. Not by an unsaved people but by those who had spiritual life, those who had more than a rudimentary understanding of God’s purpose for them. c). And why did such a thing happen? Because on the one hand, Satan had begun his deceptive work among the Jewish people from the moment the first Jewish foot stepped outside of Egypt in anticipation of Messiah’s Advent. And on the other hand, because, under the direction of their religious leaders, the Jewish people had been turned away from the Word of Truth. No doubt we will remember from a few weeks back, what the Scriptures record about them – Jer 50:6 “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; They have forgotten their resting place. Or, we could say it this way, that they never made the three days’ journey to worship the God of their fathers – Jn 19:15 But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!” Now, we know as a result of Israel’s rejection of the Kingdom of the Heavens, that the Church, the new creation in Christ, was brought into existence to be the recipient of that which Israel had rejected. d). And we also know that the Kingdom of the Heavens was then re-offered to the same generation of eternally saved Jews who were alive at the time of the Lord’s first Advent, throughout the time covered by the Book of Acts, by the Church, as national repentance on Israel’s part would still have remained possible while that generation was alive. e). And we know that the reoffer of the Kingdom of the heavens was again rejected by that same generation of Jews, leaving the offer of the Kingdom in the hands of the ‘Church’ alone, those taken primarily from among the Gentile nations, even to today. But this we will have to continue with this next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and someone has prayed for us.
