March 2, 2020
 |
| In loving memory of my father Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023 |
In our previous two messages we have been sharing with you about the sovereignty of God and man's responsibility ... how the two go together. In addition, one attribute of God jumps out as we look at the lives of the men and women in the Bible who were chosen by God. That attribute is the sovereignty of God. A multitude of examples of the sovereignty of God at work within His chosen people are recorded in the Bible. We will look at only a few of those examples.
Job
The Book of Job, among other things, is pre-eminently about the sovereignty of God. After all of the discourse between five men (Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu) which occupies Chapters 3-37 of the Book of Job (or 35 of the 42 chapters), the Lord comes on the scene to announce His sovereignty. In four Chapters (Chapter 38-41) the Lord speaks only to Job. That has significance because Job was called and chosen by the Lord. It is good to go back and read those four chapters, which begin with Job 38. We will read only a small part of those verses.
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me.4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?24 By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
A New Testament counterpart of those verses could be,
And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. 1 Corinthians 8:2
We could add: Who caused the flood in the time of Noah? Who created the heavens and the earth, everything in it, and man? Who closed the mouth of the lions when Daniel spent the night in the lions' den? Who preserved the three Hebrews when they were thrown into the fiery furnace? Who parted the Red Sea? Who helped to bring Jesus Christ on the scene at precisely the right day? Our Heavenly Father did it by Himself. Was the world ready for Jesus to arrive? Did they have the stage set for Christ by their extensive preparation? From whom did the Lord seek permission to pour out of His Spirit upon the believers on the day of Pentecost? No one!
Will our God need our help or permission to do the quick work which He has promised to do in the near future? He will do it Himself! He will get the job done, with or without any help or permission from either you or me. Our God is All in All!
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:28 For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. Romans 9:27-28
Also from Romans 9, Verses 13-24,
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.15 For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.18 Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will he hardeneth.19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?22 What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:23 And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory,24 Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Those verses clearly show the sovereignty of God at work.
Abraham
One of my favorite examples of the sovereignty of God is the life of Abraham, which could easily occupy a complete book. He was uncompromising and was willing to obey the Lord by separating from his country, his kindred, and his father's house. However, after Abram undoubtedly told his father, Terah, that he was leaving, Terah said that he was going with Abram and they would also take Lot, Abram's nephew. After all, Lot's father had already died so Lot had no one left in his family. That was nice, logical reasoning, but from Isaiah 51:2, the Lord called Abraham alone. The Lord never called Abraham's father and never called Lot. But the sovereignty of God was still at work. Terah, Abraham's father, died halfway to Canaan. Later, Abraham had to separate himself from Lot, who represents a carnal Christian.
When Abraham first entered the land, he pitched his tent at Bethel, which means "house of God" (Genesis 12:8). He left that place for Egypt, which became a "house of slaves." Now he was back in Bethel (13:3), a wiser man than before. He has retraced his steps to recover the lost ground of going to Egypt. The Lord told Abram, in Genesis 13:17-18, "Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord." He then dwelled in Mamre, which means "vision" and pitched his tent in Hebron, which means "joined together" or "communion." At Bethel, Abraham had worshipped; at Hebron he knew true fellowship with God. Thus faith moves on to greater faith.
Now who can argue with vision and communion with God? Yet Abram slipped once more, and very subtly this time. Why? because the Lord had told Abram to "walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it" (13:17). Instead, Abram pitched his tent and settled in comfortably in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar to the Lord. Very admirable, but that was NOT what the Lord told Abram to do. "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22). But God is sovereign. He will still have His will fulfilled.
And so God, in His sovereignty, stirred up the first war recorded in the bible, involving perhaps hundreds of thousands of men, for what purpose? to get Abram to do what Abram had neglected to do. Abram, in order to rescue Lot, had to walk from Hebron, in the southernmost part of the land, all the way up to Dan, in the extreme northernmost part, and over eastward close to Damascus. In doing so, Abram finally fulfilled the word of the Lord to him.
Genesis 14:1-12 tells of that war between four kings and five kings. The four kings represent the "good guys." They were descendants of Shem. Amraphel, the first "good" king mentioned, was king of Shinar, which was in the fertile plain of Babylon. Amraphel has been identified historically to be Hammurabi. The code of laws which Hammurabi set forth were indeed "good" and included nearly 300 paragraphs of legal provisions concerning commercial, social, domestic, and moral life. Many have compared Hammurabi's code with the Mosaic law, and indeed there are many similarities. Just as with Lot, this code was the best that man had to offer.
The five kings in verse 2 represent the "bad guys" and included the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah. They were descendants of Ham. The five kings had served Chedorlaomer for 12 years (14:4), and they should have, for God had pronounced the curse of servitude upon them through Noah. In the 13th year they rebelled.
The important point here is that Abram was part of NEITHER. He was not associated with the good guys or the bad guys. There are three parties in view ... the world, the flesh, and the man of faith. Abram remains set apart from both the good AND the evil, even as God told Adam and Eve that they were not to partake of the tree of knowledge of GOOD and evil. The good and the evil will always war against each other, but we must be careful not to get pulled into their war, which is at a carnal level. The world (the good guys) wants to enlist the man of faith as an ally, but the true man of faith will not join the world in its efforts to subdue Sodom, nor will he join Sodom in its efforts to throw off the yoke of the world. The man of faith has no place even in moral controversies that occupy much of the thought of the world. The world cannot understand why the true pilgrim will not join in the fight against evil. The moral victory of the religious world must not be confused with the spiritual victory of the man of faith. The spiritual man must remain aloof, misunderstood by all but God.
In that first big war, the good guys won (14:10) and took captive not only all of the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah but Lot as well. Note that Abram, the man of faith, did not move until his fellow believer was in danger. Now Abram COULD have said, "It served him right"; or "He had it coming to him." After all, Abram had allowed Lot to come with him all the way from Ur; Abram was undoubtedly the reason why Lot had prospered and accumulated much riches; and then Lot, stirred on by his desire for earthly riches, had been the cause of great strife between the herdmen of Lot and the herdmen of Abram. But the man of God is a man of compassion. And so when Abram heard that Lot had been taken captive by the good guys, he armed his 318 trained servants and pursued the good guys unto Dan (14:14). Abram was a spiritual man and set out to restore Lot in a spirit of meekness. The yielded believer cannot have within him a root of bitterness. Even though Lot had been the source of great anguish and strife to Abram, Abram returned good for evil. Nothing marks a man as being like Christ more than his genuine love for someone who has been the cause of a deep wrong.
There are at least two significant points about Abram's pursuit of the good guys in order to rescue Lot. The first is that Abram had only 318 trained servants, and they pursued at least tens of thousands of the good guys. The second is that Abram had made no attempt to rescue Lot from the bad guys in Sodom prior to this war. Does that indicate that the good guys are more of a threat to us as believers than are the bad guys? I believe so. Why? because the ways of the world (the good guys) are so subtle and so hard to distinguish from the ways of the Lord. That is why we must exercise our [spiritual] senses to be able to discern BOTH (NOT between) GOOD and evil from the path of the just (Hebrews 5:14). It is not too difficult to discern evil. Discerning between good and the ways of the Lord is the hard part. It takes vision and a communion with the Lord.
So Abram in his compassionate rescue mission, "pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus" (14:15). And "Abram brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods" (14:16). How does the meek and lowly Abram, who had yielded his rights to Lot, suddenly display such courage, initiative, and tenacity? And how did Abram, with only 318 men, slaughter armies probably hundreds or even thousands of times larger than his own (Genesis 14:17)? The answer, of course, is that all of his resources were in God.
3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
Leviticus 26: 3, 8
A hundred shall put ten thousand to flight. This is a ratio of 1 to 100. Therefore, it should be NO surprise if Abraham and his 318 men chased an army of 31,900 (319 times 100). So after his amazing victory and rescue of Lot, two kings came out to meet Abram. The first was the king of Sodom ... the second was the king of Salem ... Melchizedek. This is one of many examples of the false emerging before the true, a topic which we hope to expand upon in a later message. Some people might have their heads turned by worldly recognition from a worldly king, but not Abram. Spiritual insight or discernment made Abram aware of the difference between these two kings. Before the king of Salem, Abram was humble and deferential; before the king of Sodom, he was firm and uncompromising.
Abram refused to take any of the spoils or eat any of the food that had originally belonged to the king of Sodom (14:23, 24). Abram said,
I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: Genesis 14:23
Joseph
Jesus is Lord over every detail of every circumstance in both the seen and the unseen realms. Another good example of the sovereignty of God is seen in the life of Joseph:
Genesis 45:5-8, "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."Genesis 50:19-20, "And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."
Peter, Paul, John
The number "three" symbolizes divine completeness or perfect testimony (or witness). Examples of sets of three in the Bible are too numerous to mention.
If we think about the New Testament, twenty-two of the twenty-seven books were written or heavily influenced by three apostles ... Peter, Paul, and John. (The other five are the books of Matthew, Luke, Acts, James, and Jude.) This "twenty-two" includes the Book of Hebrews (written by Paul) and the Gospel according to Mark. It is generally agreed that John Mark was a close associate of Peter, from whom he received the things said and done by the Lord. Mark, in writing his Gospel, recorded Peter's recollection of his Lord. These truths came to Mark as the preaching of Peter directed to the needs of the early Christian community. Mark accurately preserved this material. It is also thought that the man Peter mentions as "Marcus, my son" (1 Peter 5:13) is this same Mark.
The lives of Peter, Paul, and John reflect not only unique ministries, but also a chronological emphasis or order ordained by God which clearly shows the development of the Church from its first beginning with Peter (at Pentecost), then to its development through Paul, and finally to its restoration through John. Each of the three apostles brings his own fresh and timely emphasis to fulfill God's timetable for the Church.
Peter and his brother Andrew were called to be "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). That is the work of an evangelist and that was Peter's initial distinctive task. He was to bring men, quickly and in great numbers, into the Kingdom. Peter was later called to a pastoral ministry of "feeding His sheep." Jesus told Peter, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." A key implies an entry, a beginning. The burden of Peter's message was salvation, not a salvation for its own sake but always with a view of the Kingdom in fullness, with Jesus as its exalted King. When Peter stood up with the eleven on the Day of Pentecost, he opened the door to the Jews. When later he preached Christ in the Roman home of Cornelius, he opened the door for the Gentiles.
Whereas Peter initiated things, Paul's task was to construct ... to help to build God's Church into fullness. Paul was a tent-maker (or tent-builder). The word, "tent," can also be translated as "tabernacle." Paul was chosen to build up the tabernacle of the congregation (Old Testament wording) or the tabernacle of the soul of the body of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:1, 4). The special ministry of Paul was to build believing souls together according to the heavenly vision which God had given to him. Paul was a prophetic teacher who undoubtedly received more revelation than any other man in history, other than Jesus of course. The ministry of Paul was the necessary complement and addition of that of Peter. But at the end of Paul's amazing ministry came many set-backs and disappointments. In Philippians 2:21, Paul tells us why: "For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." Has anything changed today?
At this point, God calls in John. John's is the last of the four Gospels; John's Epistles are the last of all of the Epistles; his Revelation is the last of all of the books in the Bible. Up until this point, John has remained in the background. The Book of Acts never records one word that John spoke. Although Peter and John are always seen together in the first eight chapters of Acts, we never see Peter and John mentioned together anymore. That is not to say that they never saw each other anymore; it just is not recorded in the Bible. But now with both Peter and Paul gone, the Lord brings to light another vessel of ministry with a fresh emphasis to meet a new need.
Doctrinally, John has nothing to add to the revelation given through Paul. Then what further ministry is needed after Paul? John and his brother James were "mending their nets" when Jesus called them. (Matthew 4:21). When we mend anything we bring it back to its original condition. John is always bringing us back to God's original intention. The ministry of John was primarily restorative in nature ... to restore all things back to what was in the heart and mind of God before the foundation of the world. What distinguishes John, whether in his Gospel, his epistles, or in the Apocalypse (Revelation) is his concern to bring the people of God back to a position they have left or lost. One of the distinctive marks of the Book of Revelation is "to him that overcometh," which is a message with an accompanying promise to each of the seven churches. But there is one more conditional promise in Revelation 21:7, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son."
The practical outworking of the pattern those three apostles illustrate is that it takes the complementary and inter-related ministries of all three to make the Church perfect (but by the power of the Holy Ghost, of course). Peter was a mouth; Paul was a renewed mind, full of revelation knowledge; John was a heart. Who can deny that we need all three of these ministries today? As a generality, Evangelicals today are striving to duplicate the "Peter" ministry or "go out and get them saved." Of course that is not exactly the correct motivation because Jesus never told us to do that. Jesus said to preach the gospel and make disciples AFTER the Lord saves them. Charismatics today are heavily focused on the "Paul" ministry of vocal gifts ... teaching, prophecy, etc. But that has not got the job done either. But the third ministry of restoration is the greatest need of all in these last of the last days. Enter the sovereignty of God once more. He has been silently building His Church; He has been silently raising up His "John" ministry ... the overcomers, the remnant ... the priests, the ministers of the Lord who will weep between the porch and the altar (Joel 2:17) ... the priests, the sons of Zadok, who will minister to the Lord and who will "teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean." (Ezekiel 44:23)
Isaiah
Every Christian probably knows that the Bible contains 66 books ... 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Likewise the Book of Isaiah contains 66 chapters. The first 39 chapters in the Book of Isaiah are primarily about the judgment of God. Thirty-nine is three times 13. "Thirteen" in the Bible speaks of rebellion or apostasy (Genesis 14:4), so thirty-nine speaks of perfect or complete rebellion. Some have called the last 27 chapters of the Book of Isaiah the "Book of Comfort," perhaps because the first words in Isaiah 40 are "comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God." "Twenty-seven" is three times three times three, where three is the number of Divine completeness or perfect testimony.
About 12 years ago the Holy Spirit seemed to quicken to me that the last 27 chapters in the Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66, represent a chronological, prophetic, time-order of events in the history of God's chosen people, starting with the time just prior to the birth of Jesus. When I shared that thought with Marion Fretwell, a precious, mature brother in Christ, who lived in Yakima, Washington, he quickly responded that he had received that same revelation in the year 2006. I have no idea how many others received that same revelation, although I have never read or heard that said through any other believer. Without going into a lot of detail, the primary significance of a few of the last 27 chapters is as follows:
Chapter 51: Conditions in the land just prior to the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus Chapter 52: The ministry of John the Baptist
Chapter 53: Calvary
Chapter 54: Pentecost
Chapter 55: Call of the Gentiles
Chapter 56: Rise of a mixed multitude within the Church
Chapter 57: Persecution of the righteous and the rise of traditions of men
Chapter 58: Voice of the Spirit through the Reformation
Chapter 59: Denominational strife
Chapter 60: The dawn of spiritual Zion's glory (overcomers)
Chapter 61: Beginning of the harvest
Chapter 62: The restoration of spiritual Zion
Chapter 63: Destruction of evil
Chapter 64: Repentance in the Church
Chapter 65: Overcomers and the new earth
Chapter 66: God's final victory and the glory of the Church
If all that is true, and I am fully persuaded it is, then what Chapter of Isaiah do we live in today? I believe we live on the verge of the fulfillment of Isaiah 59:19, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him." No one can doubt that the world, particularly the United States, is going from darkness to gross darkness. Likewise, the enemy has been coming in like a flood for several years. But Chapters 60 through 66 of Isaiah can be fulfilled rapidly.
Now you may have noticed that I have said nothing about Isaiah, Chapters 40-50. That has been by design because in our next message I want to devote everything to Isaiah, Chapter 40.
Scientists have estimated that there are trillions of galaxies, some of which have 100 trillion stars. If we consider the vastness of what God has created and His infinite greatness and majesty, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4) Compared with what God has made and compared with our indescribable God, we individuals seem smaller than a pinhead in size. And yet, even the hairs on our heads are all numbered and not one sparrow shall fall to the ground except He knows it. Amazing! That is enough to keep us humble before Him for all eternity!
No comments:
Post a Comment