No Common Ground - Part One Jun 25, 2023 by: John Herbert | Series: No Common Ground Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T008_20230625.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Jn 14:30 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. Today we will begin the first part of the conference massages from the East Africa trip. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday June 25th 2023 No Common Ground – Part 1 1). Jn 14:28 ¶ "You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I. 29 "And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. 30 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. 31 "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here. The title for our series is taken from Jesus’ conversation with His disciples recorded in John Chapter 14. He had told them that He was going away to be with ‘the Father’, so that when this took place, they would believe. But prior to His going, anticipating His crucifixion, He told them that ‘the ruler of this world is coming’. And the word that’s translated ‘ruler’ here, is a word that means, the original ruler, or the first ruler, who can be no one other than Satan. Satan was coming, but the Lord said, ‘he has nothing in Me.’ a). In other words, there was no common ground, no point of mutual contact between them. It was the Lord who had created Lucifer and his angels to rule over the earth but following Lucifer/Satan’s rebellion there could no longer be any commonality between them. They did appear together in time and space at the Lord’s first Advent, but beyond this physical presence, because of the sin that separated them, there could be nothing else. Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Light of the World, the Giver of Life, whereas Satan is the diametric opposite, the father of lies, one of the rulers of the darkness of this age, the harbinger of death – 2 Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Jn 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 1 Jn 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus is the promised ‘seed of the woman’, promised in Genesis 3:15, and as the sin nature possessed by all has been passed down through the male line, beginning with Adam, who was the federal head of the human race, the fact that the Lord is specifically shown to be the seed of the woman demonstrates clearly what we know about His sinless nature – 2 Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. What we know from this concerning the sinless Christ cannot be said for the rest of us though. We know that all those procreated from Adam onwards, including us, are in the likeness of fallen Adam - Ge 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. And so, at the time of our natural birth we all possessed an unredeemed spirit - Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses….. An unredeemed soul - Eph 4:22b…the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, And an unredeemed body apart from the glory - Ro 8:23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. But the good news of course is that God has set in place, through the death and resurrection of His Son, everything that is necessary for the redemption of all three parts of our being. Beginning with the free gift, the redemption of our spirit. b). Let’s call to mind once more what is recorded in the foundation that provides the picture for the redemption of the spirit – Ge 1:3 ¶ Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. This is where the separation occurred between the light and the darkness, but even though the light was then present, the darkness remained. Witnessed in our experience in the natural every day through the transition of day and night. c). And in conjunction with the foundational picture of light and dark existing together, let’s remember the first generation of Israel who were completely redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, who were saved on the night of Passover by the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs, an event that corresponded to the light in the darkness from Genesis Day 1. A redeemed people who were then required to deal with the ongoing sin that continued in their lives, the darkness that remained. Dealing with their ongoing sin was to be a process of continual separation from it, portrayed through the Feast of Unleavened Bread – Ex 12:15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. And it was of course the outworking of their sin nature, the darkness that still remained, that they chose to follow, that led to their overthrow in the wilderness, bringing them short of the purpose for their redemption. A propensity to sin that would ultimately result in the end of the Theocracy and the departure of the glory in the days of the Babylonian captivity. And, with respect to ourselves, we will remember this in - Ga 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Although the free gift has completely and irrevocably redeemed our spirit, our unredeemed soul and unredeemed body remain. Although we need no longer be slaves to sin, we still have a sin nature that gives us the opportunity to sin - Ro 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Our sin nature came to us through our first birth, our natural birth, that which was born of the flesh, and this remains inextricably connected to the kingdom of Satan within the present age, and can only ever be in opposition to the things of God – Ga 4:30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." Nothing connected with our first birth, pictured in this verse through the son of the bondwoman, will have any inheritance in the Millennial Kingdom. Inheritance is reserved for the man of the spirit, that which comes from our spiritual birth, pictured through the son of the free woman. d). We can conclude then, that because of our sin nature, Satan does have something in us, this is an area of common ground between him and us, a doorway by which we can allow access to his wiles. e). It is the man of the spirit alone who can receive the spiritual truth brought forth from above out of God, the Scriptures. The man of the flesh can have no access to that which is spiritual – 1 Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The man of the flesh can only receive the wisdom brought forth from below, with which he remains acquainted, that which originates within Satan’s kingdom, that which the Scriptures describe as earthly, sensual, demonic. And because of this we experience a constant tension between the two. A good example of both these types of wisdom in operation through the man of the spirit and the man of the flesh can be found in verses that will likely be familiar to us – Mt 16:12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. This section of Scripture begins with Jesus warning His disciples about the leaven, the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees, false teachings whereby they had replaced the commands of God with the commands of men. Thereby exchanging the wisdom from above for the wisdom from below. And within the context of this conversation, Jesus then asked His disciples who MEN said that He was. And what men had to say only brought confusion because it came out of their own thinking, again the wisdom from below, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” f). The clarity and precision of the wisdom brought forth from above is witnessed in Peter’s revelation “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And this revelation did not come from the wisdom from below, what men said, but came from the wisdom from above, brought forth from the Father. The contrast is drawn then, between what men say and what God says. We know what comes next – Mt 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” We will note that this is Peter, a man who is redeemed, a disciple of Christ, who just a few short verses before this incident had received the wisdom from above that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The most precise and accurate description of Jesus’ identity that could be given. And yet in almost the next breath he aligns himself with Satan, being at that moment, not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. He spoke from his own agenda, not the agenda which God, in the person of Son, had just revealed to him. He embraced the wisdom from below. Peter is not Satan, but at that moment what he said brought him into such close alignment with Satan, as it was completely contrary to the Word of God, that it was as if Satan himself had said the words. Satan had something in Peter: doing what was right in his own eyes, selfish ambition, placing his agenda above God’s agenda. The door of the sin nature. g). And following on from His rebuke of Peter, the Lord then gave a teaching concerning these two types of wisdom within the context of the life of the redeemed in possession of the old man and the new – Mt 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life/soul [in the present] will lose it [for the age], but whoever loses his life/soul for My sake [in the present] will find it [in the age to come]. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul/life [for the age]? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul/life [for the age]? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. The wisdom from above must always be connected with having life for the age, whereas the wisdom from below is inseparable from the loss of one’s life for the age. To save one’s soul/life in the present, is the wisdom from below, being mindful of the things of men, whereas losing one’s soul/life is the wisdom from above, being mindful of the things of God – 2Co 10:5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…. Lu 22:42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 2). There is another event for us to consider. An event that takes place on the night of the Last Supper, recorded in - Mt 26:20 When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. 21 Now as they were eating, He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." 22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?" What we need to see from these verses, is not so much the fact of the Lord’s betrayal, but the disciples’ response to its announcement - 22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?" Judas Iscariot at this point was by no means the obvious candidate. There had been nothing thus far to have distinguished him from any of the others. And as we consider this, let’s remember that Judas was one of the twelve - Mt 10:5 ¶ These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Judas was just as redeemed as the others, Judas heard the message of the Kingdom and Judas performed signs, wonders, and miracles in relation to the proclamation of this message. And yet, despite this, it is Judas who betrayed the Christ of the Kingdom message. How was it possible for him to do that? The Scripture will show us - Mt 26:14 ¶ Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. Despite what Judas saw, despite what Judas heard, despite who Judas was with, he was more mindful of the things of men, ‘what are you willing to give me…’, than the things of God. a). Now, let’s look at the Lord’s commentary on this in – Mt 26:24 "The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." It is often part of the leavened teaching, that what Christ said has eternal consequences for Judas, which cannot be the case. Rather, what He says has Kingdom consequences. b). Judas will stand before Christ as his Judge and what we are about to read will be his reality - Heb 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries….31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. What we need to understand is that Judas was not an eternally lost person, nor was he inherently more wicked than anyone else, nor was he demonically possessed. Every Christian, including each of us has the potential to be a Judas. We just prefer not to admit it. c). And let’s not forget Peter on the night of the Lord’s betrayal - Mt 26:34 Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 35 Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And so said all the disciples. And as the Scriptures record, Peter did deny Jesus three times. Peter was not an eternally lost person either, he was not someone ignorant of the message of the Kingdom. This was the same Peter who had the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the same Peter who was on the Mount of Transfiguration and saw Christ coming in His Kingdom - Lu 22:59 Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean." 60 But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are saying!" Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 62 So Peter went out and wept bitterly. Here, in these verses, through Peter’s experience that night, we have a most poignant picture of events that will take place at the Judgment Seat for those Christians, who have, through being mindful of the things of men, denied Christ as Peter did - Mt 10:33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Re 3:5 "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. From the verses in Luke 22 we see that the Lord turned and looked at Peter, calling to our remembrance, His eyes like a flame of fire in Revelation 1:14, looking into the very heart of Peter. And as a result, Peter left the lighted courtyard and went into the darkness outside and wept bitterly in realization of what he had done - Mt 25:30 'And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' And what reason do we have for Peter’s denial of his Lord? And for the desertion of the other disciples that night? They, at this point, had a greater fear of man than of God. They were mindful of the things of men, rather than the things of God. d). And let us not overlook the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. Those who sat in Moses’ Seat, who taught the Scriptures, who fasted, who prayed, who kept the Law, who, to the average person of that day, ‘loved the Lord’. Yet what do we find in relation to them? - Mt 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. We find a focus from them on religious performance, keeping the letter of the Law and not on faith. And religious performance of this sort at any time has its origins in only one place, the things of men, the wisdom from below, not the things of God - Mr 7:5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?" 6 He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' 8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do." And Jesus gave the following condemnation to the religious leaders because of this - Jn 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. Ultimately their self-righteous religious performance could only have led to an alignment with Satan, even though the scribes and the Pharisees and Sadducees would have been convinced in their own minds, that they were Godly men. e). What do the Scriptures tell us? - Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word [the Word of the Kingdom, done in faith], and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. We can deceive ourselves into thinking that we ‘love the Lord’, but proving through our practice, that we are more closely associated with our enemy instead - Jn 14:21 "He who has My commandments [Hearers] and keeps them, [Doers] it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Please let us never forget that it will be our faithful obedience to the Word of Truth alone that will be judged at the Judgment Seat. Our doing of the Word of the Kingdom, by faith. How shocking in that day to find ourselves a son of the devil rather than a son of God. 3). Let’s return to the foundations in Genesis once more, where we will remember that there were two trees specifically mentioned in the Garden Ge 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There was the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both were located in the Garden of Eden and both produced fruit. But there is a sharp difference between the two however, marked by the consequences for eating their fruit. a). One tree produced life. And this, contextually, must have to do with God’s purpose for creating Man, it must have to do with life for the age with respect to rulership and the Seventh Day. And the other produced death, which contextually must have to do with exactly the same thing, death for the age. b). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not unpleasant to look at and seemingly its fruit did not taste bad, there was nothing outwardly that appeared wrong with it. However, Satan’s positioning at this tree and his enticement to eat from it, and the consequences of eating from it, would more closely align this tree with him than with God. And Satan as we know became wise in his own eyes rather than being mindful of the things of God - Isa 14:13 For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north… The knowledge of good and evil is not of itself a bad thing, providing our determination about what is good and evil are based on the Scriptures, what God has defined as good and what God has defined as evil. Eating from the tree of that name, because of the consequence for eating from it, shows that the knowledge of good and evil that comes from this, is the exercise of judgment apart from the Word of Truth as to what, or who is good, in our own eyes. Making good for nothing the Word of God. In essence exalting the things of men, the wisdom from below, above the things of God, the wisdom from above. c). And we can see this whole matter again from yet another perspective through Israel’s experience in the wilderness. God had provided all that was necessary to sustain them on their journey to the land of promise through the Manna from heaven, but the Jews grew tired of this manna, longing instead for what they had eaten in Egypt, being mindful of the things of men, not the things of God - Nu 11:5 "We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 "but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" And isn’t this exactly what we have seen with respect to Peter and Judas and Israel’s religious leaders, and isn’t this at the very heart of being a hearer only and not a doer of the word? Rejecting the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven, the Word of Truth brought forth from above, preferring to eat cucumbers instead. Choosing what seems right in our own eyes rather than what is right in God’s eyes? - Jas 3:13 ¶ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. We will continue with this next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and someone has prayed. No Common Ground - Part One Jun 25, 2023 Speaker: John Herbert Series: No Common Ground Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T008_20230625.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Jn 14:30 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. Today we will begin the first part of the conference massages from the East Africa trip. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday June 25th 2023 No Common Ground – Part 1 1). Jn 14:28 ¶ "You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I. 29 "And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. 30 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. 31 "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here. The title for our series is taken from Jesus’ conversation with His disciples recorded in John Chapter 14. He had told them that He was going away to be with ‘the Father’, so that when this took place, they would believe. But prior to His going, anticipating His crucifixion, He told them that ‘the ruler of this world is coming’. And the word that’s translated ‘ruler’ here, is a word that means, the original ruler, or the first ruler, who can be no one other than Satan. Satan was coming, but the Lord said, ‘he has nothing in Me.’ a). In other words, there was no common ground, no point of mutual contact between them. It was the Lord who had created Lucifer and his angels to rule over the earth but following Lucifer/Satan’s rebellion there could no longer be any commonality between them. They did appear together in time and space at the Lord’s first Advent, but beyond this physical presence, because of the sin that separated them, there could be nothing else. Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Light of the World, the Giver of Life, whereas Satan is the diametric opposite, the father of lies, one of the rulers of the darkness of this age, the harbinger of death – 2 Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Jn 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 1 Jn 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus is the promised ‘seed of the woman’, promised in Genesis 3:15, and as the sin nature possessed by all has been passed down through the male line, beginning with Adam, who was the federal head of the human race, the fact that the Lord is specifically shown to be the seed of the woman demonstrates clearly what we know about His sinless nature – 2 Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. What we know from this concerning the sinless Christ cannot be said for the rest of us though. We know that all those procreated from Adam onwards, including us, are in the likeness of fallen Adam - Ge 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. And so, at the time of our natural birth we all possessed an unredeemed spirit - Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses….. An unredeemed soul - Eph 4:22b…the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, And an unredeemed body apart from the glory - Ro 8:23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. But the good news of course is that God has set in place, through the death and resurrection of His Son, everything that is necessary for the redemption of all three parts of our being. Beginning with the free gift, the redemption of our spirit. b). Let’s call to mind once more what is recorded in the foundation that provides the picture for the redemption of the spirit – Ge 1:3 ¶ Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. This is where the separation occurred between the light and the darkness, but even though the light was then present, the darkness remained. Witnessed in our experience in the natural every day through the transition of day and night. c). And in conjunction with the foundational picture of light and dark existing together, let’s remember the first generation of Israel who were completely redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, who were saved on the night of Passover by the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs, an event that corresponded to the light in the darkness from Genesis Day 1. A redeemed people who were then required to deal with the ongoing sin that continued in their lives, the darkness that remained. Dealing with their ongoing sin was to be a process of continual separation from it, portrayed through the Feast of Unleavened Bread – Ex 12:15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. And it was of course the outworking of their sin nature, the darkness that still remained, that they chose to follow, that led to their overthrow in the wilderness, bringing them short of the purpose for their redemption. A propensity to sin that would ultimately result in the end of the Theocracy and the departure of the glory in the days of the Babylonian captivity. And, with respect to ourselves, we will remember this in - Ga 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Although the free gift has completely and irrevocably redeemed our spirit, our unredeemed soul and unredeemed body remain. Although we need no longer be slaves to sin, we still have a sin nature that gives us the opportunity to sin - Ro 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Our sin nature came to us through our first birth, our natural birth, that which was born of the flesh, and this remains inextricably connected to the kingdom of Satan within the present age, and can only ever be in opposition to the things of God – Ga 4:30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." Nothing connected with our first birth, pictured in this verse through the son of the bondwoman, will have any inheritance in the Millennial Kingdom. Inheritance is reserved for the man of the spirit, that which comes from our spiritual birth, pictured through the son of the free woman. d). We can conclude then, that because of our sin nature, Satan does have something in us, this is an area of common ground between him and us, a doorway by which we can allow access to his wiles. e). It is the man of the spirit alone who can receive the spiritual truth brought forth from above out of God, the Scriptures. The man of the flesh can have no access to that which is spiritual – 1 Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The man of the flesh can only receive the wisdom brought forth from below, with which he remains acquainted, that which originates within Satan’s kingdom, that which the Scriptures describe as earthly, sensual, demonic. And because of this we experience a constant tension between the two. A good example of both these types of wisdom in operation through the man of the spirit and the man of the flesh can be found in verses that will likely be familiar to us – Mt 16:12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. This section of Scripture begins with Jesus warning His disciples about the leaven, the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees, false teachings whereby they had replaced the commands of God with the commands of men. Thereby exchanging the wisdom from above for the wisdom from below. And within the context of this conversation, Jesus then asked His disciples who MEN said that He was. And what men had to say only brought confusion because it came out of their own thinking, again the wisdom from below, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” f). The clarity and precision of the wisdom brought forth from above is witnessed in Peter’s revelation “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And this revelation did not come from the wisdom from below, what men said, but came from the wisdom from above, brought forth from the Father. The contrast is drawn then, between what men say and what God says. We know what comes next – Mt 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” We will note that this is Peter, a man who is redeemed, a disciple of Christ, who just a few short verses before this incident had received the wisdom from above that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The most precise and accurate description of Jesus’ identity that could be given. And yet in almost the next breath he aligns himself with Satan, being at that moment, not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. He spoke from his own agenda, not the agenda which God, in the person of Son, had just revealed to him. He embraced the wisdom from below. Peter is not Satan, but at that moment what he said brought him into such close alignment with Satan, as it was completely contrary to the Word of God, that it was as if Satan himself had said the words. Satan had something in Peter: doing what was right in his own eyes, selfish ambition, placing his agenda above God’s agenda. The door of the sin nature. g). And following on from His rebuke of Peter, the Lord then gave a teaching concerning these two types of wisdom within the context of the life of the redeemed in possession of the old man and the new – Mt 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life/soul [in the present] will lose it [for the age], but whoever loses his life/soul for My sake [in the present] will find it [in the age to come]. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul/life [for the age]? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul/life [for the age]? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. The wisdom from above must always be connected with having life for the age, whereas the wisdom from below is inseparable from the loss of one’s life for the age. To save one’s soul/life in the present, is the wisdom from below, being mindful of the things of men, whereas losing one’s soul/life is the wisdom from above, being mindful of the things of God – 2Co 10:5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…. Lu 22:42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 2). There is another event for us to consider. An event that takes place on the night of the Last Supper, recorded in - Mt 26:20 When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. 21 Now as they were eating, He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." 22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?" What we need to see from these verses, is not so much the fact of the Lord’s betrayal, but the disciples’ response to its announcement - 22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?" Judas Iscariot at this point was by no means the obvious candidate. There had been nothing thus far to have distinguished him from any of the others. And as we consider this, let’s remember that Judas was one of the twelve - Mt 10:5 ¶ These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Judas was just as redeemed as the others, Judas heard the message of the Kingdom and Judas performed signs, wonders, and miracles in relation to the proclamation of this message. And yet, despite this, it is Judas who betrayed the Christ of the Kingdom message. How was it possible for him to do that? The Scripture will show us - Mt 26:14 ¶ Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. Despite what Judas saw, despite what Judas heard, despite who Judas was with, he was more mindful of the things of men, ‘what are you willing to give me…’, than the things of God. a). Now, let’s look at the Lord’s commentary on this in – Mt 26:24 "The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." It is often part of the leavened teaching, that what Christ said has eternal consequences for Judas, which cannot be the case. Rather, what He says has Kingdom consequences. b). Judas will stand before Christ as his Judge and what we are about to read will be his reality - Heb 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries….31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. What we need to understand is that Judas was not an eternally lost person, nor was he inherently more wicked than anyone else, nor was he demonically possessed. Every Christian, including each of us has the potential to be a Judas. We just prefer not to admit it. c). And let’s not forget Peter on the night of the Lord’s betrayal - Mt 26:34 Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 35 Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And so said all the disciples. And as the Scriptures record, Peter did deny Jesus three times. Peter was not an eternally lost person either, he was not someone ignorant of the message of the Kingdom. This was the same Peter who had the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the same Peter who was on the Mount of Transfiguration and saw Christ coming in His Kingdom - Lu 22:59 Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean." 60 But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are saying!" Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 62 So Peter went out and wept bitterly. Here, in these verses, through Peter’s experience that night, we have a most poignant picture of events that will take place at the Judgment Seat for those Christians, who have, through being mindful of the things of men, denied Christ as Peter did - Mt 10:33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Re 3:5 "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. From the verses in Luke 22 we see that the Lord turned and looked at Peter, calling to our remembrance, His eyes like a flame of fire in Revelation 1:14, looking into the very heart of Peter. And as a result, Peter left the lighted courtyard and went into the darkness outside and wept bitterly in realization of what he had done - Mt 25:30 'And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' And what reason do we have for Peter’s denial of his Lord? And for the desertion of the other disciples that night? They, at this point, had a greater fear of man than of God. They were mindful of the things of men, rather than the things of God. d). And let us not overlook the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. Those who sat in Moses’ Seat, who taught the Scriptures, who fasted, who prayed, who kept the Law, who, to the average person of that day, ‘loved the Lord’. Yet what do we find in relation to them? - Mt 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. We find a focus from them on religious performance, keeping the letter of the Law and not on faith. And religious performance of this sort at any time has its origins in only one place, the things of men, the wisdom from below, not the things of God - Mr 7:5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?" 6 He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' 8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do." And Jesus gave the following condemnation to the religious leaders because of this - Jn 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. Ultimately their self-righteous religious performance could only have led to an alignment with Satan, even though the scribes and the Pharisees and Sadducees would have been convinced in their own minds, that they were Godly men. e). What do the Scriptures tell us? - Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word [the Word of the Kingdom, done in faith], and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. We can deceive ourselves into thinking that we ‘love the Lord’, but proving through our practice, that we are more closely associated with our enemy instead - Jn 14:21 "He who has My commandments [Hearers] and keeps them, [Doers] it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Please let us never forget that it will be our faithful obedience to the Word of Truth alone that will be judged at the Judgment Seat. Our doing of the Word of the Kingdom, by faith. How shocking in that day to find ourselves a son of the devil rather than a son of God. 3). Let’s return to the foundations in Genesis once more, where we will remember that there were two trees specifically mentioned in the Garden Ge 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There was the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both were located in the Garden of Eden and both produced fruit. But there is a sharp difference between the two however, marked by the consequences for eating their fruit. a). One tree produced life. And this, contextually, must have to do with God’s purpose for creating Man, it must have to do with life for the age with respect to rulership and the Seventh Day. And the other produced death, which contextually must have to do with exactly the same thing, death for the age. b). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not unpleasant to look at and seemingly its fruit did not taste bad, there was nothing outwardly that appeared wrong with it. However, Satan’s positioning at this tree and his enticement to eat from it, and the consequences of eating from it, would more closely align this tree with him than with God. And Satan as we know became wise in his own eyes rather than being mindful of the things of God - Isa 14:13 For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north… The knowledge of good and evil is not of itself a bad thing, providing our determination about what is good and evil are based on the Scriptures, what God has defined as good and what God has defined as evil. Eating from the tree of that name, because of the consequence for eating from it, shows that the knowledge of good and evil that comes from this, is the exercise of judgment apart from the Word of Truth as to what, or who is good, in our own eyes. Making good for nothing the Word of God. In essence exalting the things of men, the wisdom from below, above the things of God, the wisdom from above. c). And we can see this whole matter again from yet another perspective through Israel’s experience in the wilderness. God had provided all that was necessary to sustain them on their journey to the land of promise through the Manna from heaven, but the Jews grew tired of this manna, longing instead for what they had eaten in Egypt, being mindful of the things of men, not the things of God - Nu 11:5 "We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 "but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" And isn’t this exactly what we have seen with respect to Peter and Judas and Israel’s religious leaders, and isn’t this at the very heart of being a hearer only and not a doer of the word? Rejecting the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven, the Word of Truth brought forth from above, preferring to eat cucumbers instead. Choosing what seems right in our own eyes rather than what is right in God’s eyes? - Jas 3:13 ¶ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. We will continue with this next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and someone has prayed.