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November 2008
Rightly
Dividing the Word of Truth
(2
Timothy 2:15)
This
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1Timothy 2:3-4
Romans by the Book Lesson
98
I’m grateful for God’s
gift of another day, and I’m grateful for each one of you.
I thank you for the
enthusiasm you have shown in gaining knowledge of the truth.
Studies have shown
that people are not happier living busier lives – cramming more and more things
to do into their daily schedule. The population
is taking more and more prescriptive medications to combat depression,
loneliness, alienation, and stress than ever before which proves that plan A
isn’t working. It’s essential that
people re-evaluate what’s really important and be intentional about “slowing down” and learning to savor the
life God has given them.
We spend our lives
hurrying through each day, meeting one commitment and then rushing off to meet
another; racing the clock along the way.
Let’s face the facts we don’t savor one moment, one hour, or the day God
has given us. Because we’re too busy we
fail to notice the beauty God brings into our lives everyday such as: the warmth in a stranger’s smile, the sound
of children’s laughter, a field of sunflowers, a song bird in its nest, or the
crimson and purple sunset.
Believe me when I
say Satan wants to keep you busy, too busy to be occupied with thoughts of God
or the things of God… So practice being still.
Learn to create pockets of quietness. Turn off the cell phone, the music, the T.V.
set or anything else that might cause a disturbance in order to carve out 20-30
minutes of silence either in the morning or in the evening and spend that time
with God and His Word. He tells us that
our strength comes from quietness and rest and not from activity (Isaiah
30:15).
Let’s
start this week’s Bible lesson. Please
open your Bible at Romans 12:1
Many
pastors and Bible teachers refer to Romans as a “Gold Mine of biblical treasure” and for good reason: the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, the benefits of justification,
and the riches of God’s Grace, no
condemnation in Christ Jesus, no separation from Christ Jesus, and the adoption as sons and daughters
are but a few of the Church Doctrines Paul teaches.
So,
Romans is loaded with “spiritual nuggets,” as I like to refer to them, and I’d be
remiss if I moved on without examining at least one more important doctrine located
in verse one which pertains to our reasonable
service. Let’s read it again together.
Romans 12
1: I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
(KJV)
This
week we’re looking at the word service. The Greek word for service is: Latreia (pronounced: lat-ri’ah). It means – the service and worship of God according to the requirements of the
Levitical law. This word could just
as well be translated “worship.”
I’ll
illustrate: most of you have driven past
a church at one time or another. When
you drove by, you may have noticed their sign out front advertising their
“business hours.” The sign might have
read: “Sunday Service at 11:00 A.M.” This
sign could just as well have read, “Our worship
of God begins at 11:00 A.M.” The
messages are identical.
The
word “worship” is derived from an old English word “worthship” and means to attribute worth to God, to consider Him as worthy of the ultimate value in our
lives, and then in some way express that sense of worth and value to Him. (Exodus 20:3-6)
When
you stop to consider that the Creator God’s worth
is infinite and we can never give back enough - this Truth leads us to
understand its biblical definition, which is a new life in Christ Jesus given in service (worship) to God
– here on earth.
If
you’ll turn with me to Revelation 5:14, Scripture gives us a “glimpse” of what
life and worship will be like in
heaven: Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne
and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of
myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
This
is descriptive of what “worship” will be like in heaven, but how should we be worshiping
God today, here on earth? The Bible
provides the answer.
Paul
uses the same word, “service,”
several times in his letter to the Hebrews:
The first (covenant) therefore also indeed had ordinances of (divine)
service, and the sanctuary, a
worldly (earthly) one. (Hebrews
9:1 - The Darby Bible)
The
LORD God ordained the ordinances of worship under the Law of Moses for the
people of Israel describing how and where this was to be done. The earthly
sanctuary spoken of in Hebrews 9:1 refers to the Tabernacle in the Wilderness
and then later to the Jewish Temple which stood in the very center of
Jerusalem, where the worship of Israel was continuously carried out (Hebrews
9:2-5).
Paul
then goes on to describe the worship or service
that God commanded for Israel and the personnel who were required to perform
the worship (Hebrews 9:6-7).
It
was a complicated and burdensome religious system, but all things being
considered what a privilege! The LORD
God in effect told His people I want to have fellowship with you. Then He provided access, a way, in which they could enter into His presence to fellowship
with Him. Of course, this fellowship was
extremely limited; only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies and
this happened only once a year to make atonement for their sins, but it was
access to the Creator God and it was “divine worship” or service.
Our Acceptable
Service
In
all of this, God has taught us there is a right
way to worship Him, which means there’s a way that’s unacceptable. This Bible
Truth brings two absolutes in Scripture into play. The first one is found in Hebrews 9:22b: and
without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The other one is located at Hebrews
11:6a: And without faith (taking God at His Word; every time) it is impossible to please Him
Using
the Law of First Mention, and turning to the book of Genesis, we find the very
first “unacceptable” offering (act of worship) to the LORD: So it
came about in the course of time that Cain (Adam’s first born) brought an offering to the LORD of (what)
the fruit of the ground. (Genesis 4:3)
Adam’s
youngest son, Abel, in obedience to the Lord’s command also brought an offering
but note the difference: Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstlings
(the firstborn) of his flock
and of their fat portions.
(Genesis 4:4a)
One
of the first things we learn from this is that:
Cain
was a farmer: he worked the land and
harvested its reward.
Abel
was a herdsman: he owned sheep and bred them.
The
Lord responded differently to these offerings:
Abel: And
the LORD had (what) regard
for Abel and for his offering; (Genesis 4:4b)
Cain: but
for Cain and for his offering He (the LORD) had no regard. (Genesis
5a)
Cain became very
angry and his countenance fell, after the LORD rejected his offering (Genesis 4:5b). This is significant as it reflects the
viewpoint of prideful man to this day.
The
LORD lovingly spoke to Cain expressing the way
to please Him saying if you would listen to Me and do what I tell you to do,
then I’d accept you and your offering: “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin
is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master
it.” (Genesis 4:6-7)
Why
did the LORD accept Abel’s offering but regard Cain’s offering as unacceptable?
Please
turn to Hebrews 11:4: By (what) faith (which is taking God at His Word) Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through
which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying
about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still (does what)
speaks.
Abel offered to God
a better sacrifice than Cain – this is the key that unlocks the
answer to the above question. Now I
admit you have to know Scripture because the first animals to be sacrificed for
man’s sin aren’t specifically named; it’s subtle: The
LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife,
and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
Animals
were slain, their blood was shed for Adam’s sin, and so these garments of skin were more than just
clothing for our first parents they represented temporary atoning blood.
As
I said, it’s not specifically mentioned here but it becomes obvious when you
study Scripture two important and distinct facts came into play immediately
after Adam’s sin. The
LORD God had explained to Adam that in order to maintain fellowship with Him
and to remain in “right standing” with Him a blood sacrifice would be required in the course of time for their sins. But above all faith in what He said was
absolutely essential. There was to be no
deviation from His set
ordinance.
Obviously,
Adam passed this vital information on to his children. Cain and Abel may not have understood all
there was to know about this subject but we know Abel was a man of faith (he took
God at His Word) because he brought the proper sacrifice to the LORD, and He accepted it.
As
for his brother Cain: So it came about in the course of
time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of (what) the fruit of the ground. We don’t know what Cain’s offering
was. It could have been a bundle of wheat,
barley, or a basket of corn, but it wasn’t the appropriate sacrifice. Fruit of the
ground doesn’t shed blood.
Cain
disobeyed the LORD’s command. This is
why the LORD didn’t accept Cain’s offering. Cain’s willful disobedience demonstrated that
he was self-willed and that he was destitute of faith.
This
describes most of the world today. When
people are introduced to the Truth of God’s Word and shown to be sinners in
Light of it how do they respond? They too
become angry and instead of trusting
in what God has said in His Word they say, “No God” or they develop their own
plan to please Him as did Cain demonstrating that they too are obstinate and
destitute of faith.
So,
if we want God to accept our worship of
Him then we need to find out from God how He wants us to worship Him in the but now era or the Dispensation of
Grace.
Our Reasonable
Service (Part 1)
I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (KJV)
The
twelfth chapter of Romans is filled with more commands from our risen Lord on
the practical aspects of living our new life in Christ Jesus than any other
chapter in the N.T. It’s noteworthy that
the first principle Paul chooses to deal with is “worship” for both the Gentiles and the believing Israelites in this
assembly. He presents it first because
it is Priority One in their lives as it should be in ours.
Please
don’t fail to notice the dispensational emphasis of Romans 12:1. When Paul writes, “I beseech you by the mercies of God,” he’s not referring to the
mercy of the Lord in general, but to the specific mercy that he wrote about
in the previous chapter.
For just as you (Gentiles) once were disobedient to God, but
now have been shown mercy because of their (Israel’s) disobedience,
so these (the Jews) also now have been disobedient, that
because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. (Romans
11:30-31)
In
times past, Israel had fellowship
with the LORD God while the Gentiles were far
off, without God, and without hope in the world. (Ephesians 2:12) But
now due to Israel’s disobedience
the Gentiles have obtained God’s mercy.
Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, had come to His own in fulfillment of the promises made to
the fathers (Romans 15:8), but the Israelites had rejected Him and they along
with the Gentiles conspired to put Him to death (Psalms 2:1-3). Still, our Lord and Savior prayed, “Father
forgive them for they know not what they do.”
In the early chapters of the Book of Acts we read how the Holy Spirit
preached forgiveness to the nation of
Israel, if they would repent and believe in the risen and ascended
Messiah. But again Israel was disobedient and rebellious persecuting
the apostles and the Messianic Believers culminating with the stoning of
Stephen, a man filled with the Holy
Spirit.
This
act of disobedience by Israel
prompted God to temporarily blind His people (Rom. 11:15) and He raised up a new apostle,
Paul, the zealous persecutor of God’s church, the first person to be saved by grace
(alone), and revealed to him a previously withheld secret program, “the
dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:1-10).
Because
of Israel’s disobedience, mercy has
been shown to the Gentiles, but the Jew is also blessed in that they too are
now being saved by the grace of God through faith in the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ for their sins.
“I beseech you
therefore brethren by the mercies of God….”
Paul is writing in the light of the dispensational change that the Lord
had revealed to him. The Gentiles who
were once far off, not allowed to
enter any further than the “vestibule” of the Temple, these Gentiles, saved by
grace, now are invited to worship God. But
please note carefully how they were to worship the Lord. Not by imitating Israel’s worship, not
by building a temple, not even by going to the temple in Jerusalem (it was
still standing and operating when Paul wrote this letter to the Romans), but by
“presenting your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship.”
There
has been a definite dispensational change in God’s plan for acceptable worship;
and it’s profound. It once required all
those complicated necessities for acceptable worship: a temple building, with
furniture, relics, the priesthood, an altar, and animal sacrifices according to
the calendar and the appropriate Feast Days, but now all that is changed. God no longer has a temple building of stone
and wood. In this new dispensation of
the grace of God, the temple of God is the Believer’s body!
“…your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Cor. 6:19).
That
is just the beginning of the changes. Today
we worship God, not by going to a building (after all, we are God’s building; we’re God’s
Temple), making use of certain implements, the appropriate personnel, by observing
a certain ritual and by observing certain feast days; our worship begins by presenting your
bodies a living sacrifice…
Then
when Paul writes “…which is your reasonable service,” underline the word “your” for emphasis. Israel’s acceptable worship was at the
Temple in Jerusalem, performing the prescribed ritual, as God ordained it, but
Paul writes, “Your worship, the
worship God has commanded for the members of the Body of Christ, in this
Dispensation of Grace, is to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice.
We’ll
pick it up here next week.
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
All
Rights Reserved
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