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Rightly Dividing
the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15)
Established
November 2008 Published weekly on Friday
This is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men (and women) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Timothy 2:3-4)
2 Corinthians (3:6a) (Lesson 07)
Greetings one and
all and welcome to HBS.
I thought the regular visitors would be interested in
knowing that readership is growing.
Statistics reveal individuals
from every part of the world are stopping by this web site. I know some of these folks are only curious; they’re
simply dropping by to look us over. They’re
“window shopping.” However, other figures show many people apparently
have found something admirable about our Bible study because they return week
after week. They are regular visitors to HBS and we are grateful
to have them with us.
Whatever your
reason for being here today please know the ground at the foot of the Cross is
level: For there is no difference of Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all
is rich (in grace) towards all
that call upon him (for salvation) - Romans 10:12 – Darby Bible Translation.
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already
the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than
when we believed
(Romans 13:11).
********
Last week I chose
to go down one of those bunny trails I
spoke of a few lessons back - for your benefit.
I committed the lesson to showing you that our Apostle Paul was the first Believer saved by God’s grace
(alone); which made him a pattern for those (coming afterward) who would believe in Jesus Christ for
eternal life (1 Timothy 1:12-16).
Just as the plans and specifications for the building of the
LORD God’s Ark to save mankind from extinction were entrusted to Noah. Saul/Paul was God’s choice to be the founder
of Christianity. The plans and
specifications for building God’s Church were committed to Paul by the
ascended, glorified Lord. Paul made this
truth known to the Corinthians in his first letter to them: According
to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master
builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it… (1
Corinthians 3:10-11). The foundation he spoke of was Jesus Christ crucified (1 Corinthians
1:23).
Paul also received
the foundational truths or “secrets”
re: the Body of Christ from the ascended Lord:
For this reason I, Paul, the
prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – if indeed you have
heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery (secret), as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can
understand my insight (knowledge) into
the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:1-11).
When reading or
studying your Bible please be careful not to confuse this church in Ephesians
with the church the Lord spoke of to Peter (Matthew 16:18). That was a prophesied church and the plans
for it are found in the Old Testament. Its
foundation was built upon our Lord as the nation of Israel’s Messiah. The church revealed to Paul in Ephesians was
a mystery, i.e. a secret and the plans and specifications
for it were kept hidden since the
foundations of the earth (Romans 16:25; Colossians 1:26). This church is built upon the Lord Jesus
Christ as the glorified Head of the Body
of Christ; rejected on earth but exalted at God’s right hand (Psalm 2;
110:1). Do this and you’re well on your
way to rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
********
Please
open your Bible at 2 Corinthians 3:6a.
2 Corinthians 3
6: who also made us
adequate as servants of a new covenant,
not of the letter (of
the Law) but of the Spirit; for
the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Who also made us
adequate as servants of a new covenant
(v6a)
– Now, it stands to reason if you
have something new then something old has either gone away or it’s in the
process of being phased out. Does that
make sense? Before we delve into what
Paul meant by this expression, it would be a mistake on my part to assume y’all
understand what a covenant is. Please permit me to advance that remark one
step further by saying unless you understand these covenants between the LORD and His chosen people, your understanding of the Scriptures will be incomplete. You see, these covenants explain why the LORD does and says the things He says and
does in Scripture. If you understand these
covenants everything God says and
does falls right into place. Said differently, this book starts to make sense.
So, we’re going to take a good, long look at God’s covenants with the nation of Israel.
A
covenant was an agreement or contract between men in the O.T. (Genesis
22). In this case it’s between God and men
(See Genesis 15 for example). Generally,
it is based upon certain conditions agreed upon. Sometimes, as between God and man, it is
unconditional but not always. God’s
covenants with man originated with Him, and generally consist of a promise
based on the fulfillment of certain conditions.
This
book mentions 8 different covenants.
They all relate to the earth and each
one introduces a new dispensation. Six of them were given to individuals such as
Adam, Noah, and Abram, and went into effect during their lifetime except the
one given to King David, which took effect at the birth of Jesus. Each one has a time element, i.e. it expires
at a certain time and four of them are distinguished by a “sign.”
The
Edenic Covenant (Genesis 1:28-30 – 2:15-17)
This
was a conditional covenant to repopulate the earth with an earthly race of
people, the first of the pre-Adamite race becoming extinct, through the earth
having been thrown into a chaotic condition (Genesis 1:2). The man
and the woman were instructed by the
Lord God to subdue the earth, have
dominion over the animal world, restrict themselves to a vegetable diet, till
and nurture the garden in which they had been placed, and to abstain from eating from the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. The
punishment for disobedience was physical
death and this would have happened to both the man and the woman immediately,
if the LORD God had not intervened (demonstrated His Grace) and ushered in a
new covenant, i.e. the Adamic
Covenant.
The
Adamic Covenant (Genesis 3:14-19)
This
covenant, like the previous one, was between the LORD God and the man and the woman in the Garden of Eden before their exile (Scripture doesn’t
refer to them as Adam and Eve until Genesis 3:20-21). This
covenant ushered in the Dispensation of Conscience. It was without conditions and contained both a
“curse” and a “promise.”
1: The
Curse was fourfold:
As
to the serpent, Satan’s “crafty” tool, the most beautiful
creature became a repulsive reptile. It
still retains some of its former beauty today, but the LORD God condemned it to
crawl upon its belly and to eat dust all the days of its life, whereas in the
Garden of Eden it had walked upright like a man (otherwise why would the LORD
God condemn it to crawl on its belly all the days of its life) and according to
the Bible text it appears it could speak as well (Genesis 3:1-5).
As
to the woman, her state had changed
in these three ways:
1)
Multiple Conceptions. As I read Genesis
4:1-2, I’m picking up the fact that she gave birth to both Cain (her first
child) and Abel (her second child) during the same pregnancy. I understand this meaning from the word “Again” in verse 2. I also
connect this meaning to what the LORD God said in Genesis 3:16: Unto
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception;
in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children (KJV). Note:
other Bible translations, including the NASB, have dropped the word conception from the text which alters
the meaning of the passage greatly.
By
multiplied conceptions is almost
certainly meant that there would be several children born at a time, i.e.
twins, triplets and the like. This would
be necessary to rapidly replenish the earth, according to the LORD God’s plan
(Genesis 1:28). In addition, and as a
matter of necessity, the children of the same parents intermarried, as there
were no other human beings alive on the planet at that time.
2)
As the Bible text stated, the woman would experience a sorrowful motherhood, meaning child-birth was to be accompanied
with much anguish and pain. If sin had
not entered the LORD’s perfect world, child-birth would have been painless and
motherhood would have been a pleasurable experience - no doubt. But as any loving mother can attest raising
children today is both painful and stressful and the experience is unending.
3)
Headship of the Man: the woman was created the equal of the man in
the beginning, but because she was deceived by the serpent, causing his fall,
she lost her equality and the man was given the headship over her (Genesis 3:16;
1 Corinthians 11:3).
As
to the man, the ground was cursed for his sake, (else he would live forever with a corrupted spirit
and soul) and whereas before it had been a pleasure to look after God’s perfect
Garden, now he would have to secure a living from the soil by the sweat of his brow or hard labor,
which would bring about stress, and in the long run cause his bodily systems to
run down, and eventually bring about his physical
death. People laugh about it,
eventually shrugging off the thought, but the “Rat Race” causes stress and stress on one’s body causes physical death.
As
to the ground, from then on it was
to be cursed with “thorns” and
“thistles” or in other words with everything that would make the cultivation of
the earth difficult.
2. The
Promise. The LORD God promised “the seed of the woman” (the Christ) would
bruise the serpent’s head (this
denotes a mortal wound) whilst the serpent’s “seed” would bruise Christ’s heel (a painful wound but non lethal). Here we have the Promise that Christ would redeem the world from the power of Satan,
thus restoring the human race and the Earth to their former condition before
the fall (Romans 8:19). This covenant
reaches until the renovation of the earth by “fire.”
The
Noahic Covenant (Genesis 8:20 – 9:17)
Mankind
having proved themselves a dismal failure, for they, like Cain, were destitute
of faith (Genesis 4:3-5) under the Dispensation of Conscience, the Lord God
sent a world-wide flood to destroy the entire human race with the exception of Noah
and his family (Genesis 6:5-8). After
the flood Noah offered a sacrifice, which was well-pleasing to the LORD God,
and He made an unconditional Covenant with Noah. It ushered in the Dispensation of Human
Government. It contained the following
provisions:
1) God would not curse
the ground anymore or destroy all the living (Genesis 9:11).
Noah and his descendants were to be fruitful, and multiply, bring forth
abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein, i.e. repopulate the earth
(Genesis 9:7).
2) They were given
dominion over all the animals of the earth, but this wasn’t the Edenic Covenant
revisited – read on: And the fear of you and the dread of you
shall be upon shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of
the air, upon all that moveth upon the
earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; (and here’s the reason why) into your hand are they delivered (for
food - Genesis 9:2). This takes us right
to provision #3.
3) They were no longer
restricted to a vegetarian diet; meat was on the menu! But the LORD God commanded them to drain the blood from it first because
He wanted to establish and for them to know that
its life is in its blood (Genesis 9:3-4).
4) The law of capital
punishment was established. One of the
reasons the LORD God destroyed all life on this planet was the earth was filled with (every manner of) violence (There was no
respect for human life in Noah’s day. Society
hasn’t sunk to that level yet, but I’m here to say we’re rapidly approaching
the day. Babies tossed in dumpsters or
aborted because having it would interrupt someone’s lifestyle choice, Police
officers gunned down in the streets, hit and run drivers leaving bodies all
over the landscape… this stuff is in the news on a daily basis Genesis 6:11;
Matthew 24:37). With these words the
LORD God let it be known all human life is to be respected; should you
take a life, you forfeit your life: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood
shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man (and woman) (Genesis 9:6). By the way, this law has never been rescinded,
despite whatever judicial arrangements man may have made.
5) The LORD God said
the earth and its inhabitants would never be destroyed again by flood
waters. The sign of this covenant is the “rainbow,” and the Covenant reaches
until the renovation of the earth by “fire.”
The
Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3)
The
Tower of Babel episode in Scripture, which took place at 2175 BC, was the
turning point in human history (Genesis 11:1-9). The Noahic Flood occurred around 2350 BC. Only 175 years after this catastrophic event mankind,
who were one people with one language and
were led by the rebel Nimrod,
rebelled against the LORD refusing to separate and repopulate the earth.
Most
of you, I’m sure, are familiar with the Bible account to some degree, but I
wonder if you’re aware that every cult, every false religion in existence today
originated at the Tower of Babel. This
was the origin of Satan’s plan to export false worship globally, or Satan’s
invention to get people to worship the creation rather than the Creator (Romans
1:25)! The Tower of Babel was an idol,
plain and simple, and it became the object of men’s worship, the point of their
pride. It spawned a complex of weird,
mysterious religions that are still being practiced in the world today (Genesis
11:1-9).
“After their death, Nimrod and his wife
Semiramis (the ancient queen of heaven) were confirmed by their priests as gods
and given homage as Marduk and Astarte.
Numerous other gods were pattered and fashioned after Nimrod and his
mother. BEL/BAAL – was the primary name
by which other nations were introduced to the worship of Marduk. Baal means “lord” or “master.” Under this name he was worshiped by the
Canaanites, Phoenicians, Syrians and to some extent by the Egyptians. BAAL worship is sometimes associated with
“Baal-zebub,” and is still known today as one of the name or “epithets” of
Satan.” - Nimrod, Mars, and The
Marduk Connecty by Bryce Self
At
that time there was no such thing as Jew or Gentile the human race was one unit
(Genesis 11:1, 6). Humanity was
returning to its “pre-Flood ways;” meaning mankind was turning away from the
LORD. They were becoming
idolatrous. Mankind was also becoming violent again under the leadership of
Nimrod, the son of Cush, a descendant of Ham.
The beginning of his kingdom was
Babel… (Genesis 10:6-10).
Archeologists
digging around in the ruins of Nineveh have found tablets with the name Gilgamesh written on them; they date
these writings around 2000 BC. The
information gathered from these tablets reveal Gilgamesh was arrogant, depraved, and ruthless, and the community
was quite concerned about his vile, filthy behavior.
The
ancient historian Josephus says of Nimrod,
“Now it was Nimrod who excited them
to such an affront and contempt of God. He
was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah - a bold man, and of great strength of
hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe
it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that
it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into
tyranny-seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring
them into a constant dependence upon his own power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if
he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower
too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for
destroying their forefathers! (Ant.
I: iv: 2)
The
nuns in Catholic, elementary school taught us the Tower of Babel was built so
the people could reach God in heaven, but in actuality this Tower was built for
protection, should God choose to flood the world again. It also housed all these mysterious, false
religions. The comments Josephus made
about Nimrod and his wife match the writings found on the Gilgamesh tablets. Gilgamesh ruled by absolute power; he
opposed Jehovah or YHWH, and did his utmost to get his people to forsake Him!
To
remedy the situation, the LORD God decided to call out an individual who was a descendant of Shem and form a separated
nation of people from him. This man’s
name was Abram. He obviously had the qualities God was
seeking, even though he too lived in an idolatrous household (Joshua 24:2). God’s plan consisted of bringing about a
nation of people from this one man, Abram,
working with them closely, which included revealing Himself to them on a
personal basis (in time, He intended to dwell amongst them). The LORD God would establish a religious
system, a priesthood, and introduce civil and moral laws because none existed at
this time; people did whatever they saw fit to do. Then one day, when the time was right, God’s
chosen people would become a nation of priests leading the pagan world to the one,
true living God (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9).
Abram
was a wealthy individual, living in the city of Ur of the Chaldees, in
Mesopotamia, but He took God at His word and moved out from there to a place he
had never seen, in faith (Genesis 11:31).
The Covenant made with Abram
was afterwards enlarged and confirmed with his son, Issac (Genesis 26:1-5), and
with his grandson Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel by the LORD (a
name which means: wrestles with God -
Genesis 28:10-15).
As
you spend more time studying your Bible, it will become quite clear the
promises the LORD God made to the nation of Israel are earthly in nature: Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from
your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house (leave
idolatry behind), To the (what) land which I will show you… Whereas
the promises God makes to His Church, the Body of Christ, are heavenly in nature (2 Corinthians 5:1-4;
Philippians 3:14, 20-21; Ephesians 2:6).
The
Abrahamic Covenant ushered in the
Dispensation of the Family; it was unconditional, and contained 7 earthly promises:
Make
him a great nation
Bless
him
Make
his name great
Be
a blessing
Bless
those who blessed him
Curse
those who curse him
In
him all the families of the earth would be blessed
By
these statements the LORD declared that Abram
and his offspring were “special” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). God sovereignly extended His blessings to Abram and his offspring; He would bless
those who blessed him and his offspring and curse those who opposed them. The LORD God sovereignly declared that all
the peoples of the earth would be blessed through Abram. Please turn to
Genesis 13:14-17:
The LORD said to
Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from
the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for
all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants
forever. “I will make your descendants
as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth,
then your descendants can also be numbered.
“Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will
give it to you.”
After
the LORD God established His Covenant with Abram, He revealed more details
about it. From the Bible passage below
we learn that included in “make you a
great nation” promise was a “Land” deed.
The LORD told Abram that all the land that he could see and walk in
would be his and his descendants forever.
That tiny speck of land we know as Israel today is not “the Land” the
Lord God promised to Abram and his descendants.
But in truth, Abram’s land promises weren’t fulfilled until the reign of
King David 997-995 BC. We also find here
the first mention of “earth” in
God’s promise that He would make Abram’s descendants as numerous “as the dust of the earth.”
Please
turn to Genesis 15:1-6: After these things the word of the LORD
came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.” Abram
said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of
my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And
Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is
my heir.” Then behold, the word of the
LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will
come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look
toward the heavens, and count the (what) stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your
descendants be.” Then he believed in the
LORD; and He reckoned it to him as (what) righteousness.
Our
Apostle Paul used this passage of Scripture to make his great argument of “justification by faith (alone).” The LORD told Abram that He was Abram’s shield, i.e. protector and his reward.
In response, Abram asked the LORD how he was going to do what He had
promised to do since he remained childless. God restated His promise to Abram telling him
that he would have a son from his own body.
The LORD God then took Abram outside and showed him the heavens above
and declared that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.
This is the first mention of a heavenly
offspring in Scripture. Abram’s
response to this declaration was “he believed in the LORD.” God’s response to Abram’s faith was to reckon him a righteous
man. Paul had much to say about this.
Now,
let’s all go to Genesis 22:15-19 in our Bibles:
Then the angel of the LORD (this
angel of the LORD here and in several
other places in your Bible is Jesus Christ in the O.T.) called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself
I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not
with held your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will
greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is
on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed, because you have (what) obeyed My voice. So
Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went to Beersheba; and
Abraham lived at Beersheba.
This
passage is rather unique in that it references both heavenly and earthly aspects
of Abraham’s descendants (v17b). This
passage concludes Abraham’s willingness to obey the LORD God’s command to
sacrifice his only son, Issac.
Heavenly
and Earthly Promises
We
reviewed the passages above because they form a template for the LORD’s earthly and heavenly promises and blessings.
You see, the Jews had no concept of passing from this life and going “right to heaven to be with the LORD.” Their only knowledge re: things of heaven was
through the “visions” of prophets who witnessed the glory and holiness of the
LORD God and His throne (Isaiah 6:1-6; Ezekiel 1-3; Daniel 7:9-28, 10-12). There is no biblical record of heaven as a
destiny for the nation of Israel.
Instead, all of the LORD God’s promises to Israel are related to the earth.
I
always teach of the 7 earthly promises
contained within the Abrahamic Covenant 3 are prominent:
1) The LORD promised Abram a “land” deed, i.e. a
specific geographical area of land that would belong to his descendants forever.
2) The LORD said he would be the father of a great nation.
3) Included in the LORD’s promise to make Abram
a great nation is the promise of a government and an earthly kingdom with God
Himself reigning as their King – for the Messiah would be born from the seed of
Abram (Luke 3:34; Isaiah 9:6).
Through
His covenant with King David, the LORD promised He would establish David’s line
upon the throne and his kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:8-17). The Jews understood these promises and
anticipated this kingdom (Luke 1:31-33, 46-55, 67-69), since God had described
it in hundreds of passages through His prophets (Isaiah 2:2-4, 11:1-10; Ezekiel
37:1-28; Zechariah 14:9-21).
Heavenly
Promises: God’s Church, the Body of Christ
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (where) in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
God’s
promises to the nation of Israel, beginning with the Abrahamic Covenant and
following in His additional covenants, were all earthly. These promises decreed a people, a land, and a
kingdom. God’s promises to His Church,
the Body of Christ, are all heavenly. Once again, the Jews knew nothing of these
things. They had no concept of dying and
going to heaven, but our Apostle Paul used this type language in several of his
letters to the churches. Please turn
with me to Philippians 3:20-21.
For our (what) citizenship is in heaven,
from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His
glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all thing to
Himself.
Try
as you might, you’ll not find language such as this in the O.T. or in the four
gospels folks. Jesus Christ never told
the twelve they had “heavenly citizenship.”
These truths were a new revelation revealed to the Apostle Paul and are
directed to members of the Body of Christ or those who believed Jesus Christ died
for their sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead, according to the
Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
For He rescued us
from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved
Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13). This verse reveals the “new truth.” God has rescued the Believer of Paul’s gospel
(Romans 2:16) from darkness to the
kingdom of His beloved Son. This
kingdom, at the present time, is located in heaven;
the kingdom is wherever the Son of God is.
In
Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians he disclosed to those Believers the
wonderful hope that a new body awaits them in heaven. The Creator God made us not just with spirits
and souls. He gave us bodies too. C.S. Lewis wrote, “God likes matter. He invented
it.” Our present bodies, through
which we enjoy many experiences, also are subject to pain, suffering, and to
death. But one day every Believer will
have an eternal body fit for heaven minus these weaknesses – what a glorious
hope (2 Corinthians 2:5-1-8).
The
sign of the Abrahamic Covenant is “circumcision” (Genesis 17, 9-14), and it extends
to the end of time, which means it lasts all the way to the “New Earth.”
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
All
Rights Reserved
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