"We have no king but Caesar" - A chilling declaration.

I have not posted for several weeks. It feels like I have been busy, and I don't even have a job right now. Since I became co-leader of a bible study I find myself prepping for it even if it is not my week to lead. I think that I operate on the principle of always be prepared. You find the basis of this in:  2 Timothy 4:2 NASB  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

Here is the problem; every time I have to lead I struggle with confidence issues. Don't get me wrong, I am comfortable being in front of groups. Admittedly there is always a trace of shyness, but the biggest issue has to do with how I am received. With a very small group, pretty much the same four to six guys, every week, you effectively have them in your face (by that I mean we are separated by about five feet because of the way we set up the tables.) Another aspect of this group is that it was handed off to us with the admonishment that it is also a life group, and therefore we, as leaders, have to give the men an opportunity to talk, as needed. Often what is said triggers off some personal conversation, and I am okay with that.

What becomes a problem is things like the last two weeks, where no one shows up until fifteen to twenty minutes after the start time. The other thing that has become a problem to me is the guy whose favorite saying is, "I take issue with that." He has some form of theological training and a retentive mind.

I never claimed to be right, that is why I include the scripture to back up my statements. Truth be known, I look at multiple translations. I get a sense, based upon what I think is reality, put flesh and blood on it, and then try to find a translation that seems to convey what I believe the Holy Spirit is trying to say. (Truth be known, I lean heavily upon the Holy Spirit.) Gather two or more people together and you will get a conflict over religious things. The key word here is religious. I will give you an example: At a recent book study the subject of the creation in Genesis came up. If God created man in his image then you have to answer the question, what is God's image? Jesus told us that no one had seen God, and yet he also said, "if you have seen me you have seen the Father." I think it is safe to say that God has an appreciation for the way we look. If you are paying attention and understand God's love then you know that the way we look has nothing to do with the Hollywood version of beauty. If you are going to be honest, then you, like me can see two phases to the creation of a solitary man and woman. Is it worth losing sleep over in a fight? No, if anything it only makes my God bigger than I had previously understood.

That said, here is the introduction to this weeks bible study.
We are currently looking at John 19:16 - 24. I never made it that far. I was only able to get through three verses. I had to introduce the study by pointing back to a brief aspect we had covered the previous week. You will see that as I developed my thoughts.

It is a little long, but you should have seen my previous study notes that finished off chapter 18 of John's gospel.

John 19: 16 -

Below are the questions for our next study:—

1. Why was Christ "delivered to them," verse 16?
2. Why "in the Hebrew," verse 17?
3. Why were two others crucified with Him, verse 18?
4. Why the inscription, verse 19?
5. Why in three languages, verse 20?
6. What is the meaning of verse 23?

The religious leadership of the nation, speaking on behalf of the nation, said, “We have no king but Caesar.” A chilling declaration, and yet a repetition of all this nation had ever done, turn their back on God. How does one do something like that and expect anything other than God's wrath? A question like this implies that the person committing the act is aware of their sin. Perhaps they were, but what we see is a self absorption that ignored the foundation of the twisted religious ideals they held.

The death of Christ may be viewed from five main viewpoints.

• From the standpoint of God the Cross was a propitiation [an antoning sacrifice] (Rom_3:25-26), where full satisfaction was made to His holiness and justice.

Romans 3:25 GNB God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people's sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

Numbers 21:7-9 NET Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD that he would take away16 the snakes from us." So Moses prayed for the people. (8) The LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks17 at it, he will live." (9) So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived.

The image of the snake was to be a symbol of the curse that the Israelites were experiencing; by lifting the snake up on a pole Moses was indicating that the curse would be drawn away from the people — if they looked to it, which was a sign of faith. (Net bible notes)

• From the standpoint of the Savior, it was a sacrifice (Eph_5:2), an offering (Heb_9:14), an act of obedience (Php_2:8).

Ephesians 5:2 NET. and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Hebrews 9:14 NET. how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

Philippians 2:8 ESV And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

• From the standpoint of believers, it was a substitution, the Just suffering for the unjust (1Pe_3:18).

1 Peter 3:18 AMP For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous (the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty), that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was put to death, but He was made alive in the spirit,

• From the standpoint of Satan it was a triumph and a defeat: a triumph, in that he bruised the heel of the woman’s Seed (Gen. 3:15); a defeat, in that through His death Christ destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil (Heb. 2: 14).

Genesis 3:15 GNB I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel."

Hebrews 2:14 NASB Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

• From the standpoint of the world it was a brutal murder (Acts 3:15). It is with this last-mentioned aspect of the death of Christ that our present passage principally treats.

Acts 3:15 ISV and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that.

The previous portion was abstracted from Arthur Pink's commentary on John's Gospel.

John 19:16 Moffatt NT Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,

Who now has possession of Jesus? The Jewish priesthood.

(Acts 2:23) This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

Let us not forget, however, that behind the governor of Judea, who delivered the Lord Jesus unto the Jews, was the Governor of the Universe, who "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). And why? Because He was "delivered for our offenses" (Rom. 4:25). Christ was delivered to death, that we might be delivered from death.

John 19:17 NASB They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.

Why would John make the declaration, “the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha”?

John's Gospel is the only one of the four that contains a precise statement regarding the author's purpose (John 20:30-31). He declares, "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (From the MacArthur commentary)

MacArthur continues by saying, “The primary purposes, therefore, are twofold: evangelistic and apologetic.”

While John made no effort to exclude anyone, you can see from some of his other writings that he wrote primarily to the Jewish community. The Revelation for example, is a predominantly Jewish book, and almost requires a Jewish mindset to assist in understanding.

Apologetics is the defense of your faith, and God certainly needs no defense, but if MacArthur is correct then John is mounting defenses against Jewish argument. In the immediate case the argument tends to form around the age old question of who killed Jesus. To gain the truth, which becomes important in light of the priesthood screaming out, “We have no king but Caesar”, Jesus answered that question personally by responding to Pilate's questioning with,

John 19:11 NASB ... "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

So God himself put Jesus on that cross just as Moses put the serpent upon the pole, so that all that look upon it can be saved. 

John 19:18 AMP There they crucified Him, and with Him two others--one on either side and Jesus between them.

I think we can be comfortable with the idea that Roman soldiers performed the act of nailing Jesus to the cross. We know that Roman soldiers gambled to gain his robe, and pierced his side, but the Jewish religious leadership forced him to the top of that hill.

Why were there two others crucified with him that day?

Isaiah 53:12 AMP Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers], and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because He poured out His life unto death, and [He let Himself] be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore [and took away] the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (the rebellious). [Luke 22:37.]

As I mentioned earlier, 1 Peter 3:18 tells us that, “Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous”. So the screams to crucifiy him and release Barabas to us, suddenly make more sense. God is busily injecting analogies all throughout these scenarios.

Now regarded as a criminal (because according to the high priest he broke the law of blasphemy, calling himself God) he, the righteous, is again contrasted between those who were guilty of sins.

Luke 22:37 AMP For I tell you that this Scripture must yet be fulfilled in Me: And He was counted and classed among the wicked (the outlaws, the criminals); for what is written about Me has its fulfillment [has reached its end and is finally settled].

Note: One of those hanging next to him was painfully aware of his sin, and of the righteousness of this Jesus hanging there, while the other was arrogant.

Luke 23:39 AMP One of the criminals who was suspended kept up a railing at Him, saying, Are You not the Christ (the Messiah)? Rescue Yourself and us [from death]!

Even this criminal hanging there had an awareness of who Christ had claimed to be. One might say, his awareness could have easily come from the placard that had been placed above the head of Jesus, but doesn't that indicate that this criminal had the leisure and ease to turn his body so to read the sign, and how does that explain the depth of understanding that it took to make such a statement. To say, “are you not the Christ” is to acknowledge that he understood that Israel longed for and awaited a conquering king, and I, like priests that put you here, refuse to believe that. And yet the criminal hanging on the other side did.

John 19:19 AMP And Pilate also wrote a title (an inscription on a placard) and put it on the cross. And the writing was: Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. John 19:20 KJV This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

Keep in mind that nothing in scripture is insignificant. So what is the significance of this action?

The reading from the Amplified does not adequately convey the implications and effect of such a sign.Whether it was common to indicate the crimes or not does not matter, for this day the utter foolishness of the charge was placed above his head so that all passing could understand why this “criminal” was being hanged; should not the public have the right to know. 

If you had little understanding of the Torah then it may not have made that much sense, but every Jew would have, through oral history, known that they awaited a Messiah. This is harshly contrasted when you think about the fact that wise men from the east came to seek out this awaited king, and found him. What did these wise men say? “We have seen his star.” So there were definite signs to indicate when, and prophecy to tell them where. (These were quite possibly educated men that were produced through Daniel's training while a captive of Babylon – Daniel himself, had determined from scripture, that the time of captivity was coming to an end. It did not take a genius to figure these things out, it merely took an understanding and an mind willing to look beyond circumstances and tradition.) 

Need more convincing? While the priests, that Pilate had to deal with, refused to accept any king other than Caesar, Simeon (Luke 2:25-29) and Anna (Luke 2:39) both recognized that the messiah was before them. Why? For they had been waiting for Him.

The sign, hung above Jesus, seemed to convey Pilate's disdain for the heretical priesthood, and, though it may have been inadvertent, declared in multiple languages that this was the king they had been longing for hanging upon that cross. Even Pilate, without understanding, declared and emphasized that their king had come. 

There is also that horrid comparison between Jesus the king, and the serpent he represented; the serpent which kills the world, hanging there, placed there by the high priest just as Moses had done. (Numbers 21)

John 19:20 KJV This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

Arthur Pink stated, “Hebrew was the language of religion; Greek of science, culture and philosophy; Latin of law. In each of these realms Christ is "king." In the religious, He is the final revelation of the true God (Heb. 1:2; John 14:9). In science, He is the Force behind all things. "By him all things consist" (Col. 1:17). "Upholding all things by the word of his power" (Heb. 1:3); so, too, in Him are hid "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). In jurisprudence, He is supreme; the Law-giver and Law-administrator (1 Cor. 9:21).”

John 19:21 ASV The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.

Arthur Pink noted that the phrase, “chief priests of the Jews” only shows up once, here. Pink seems to feel that, “the Holy Spirit thereby intimating that God no longer owned them as His priests: having rejected their Messiah, Judaism was set aside, and therefore its official leaders are regarded as serving the Jews, but not Jehovah.”

What are the implications of this?

Something we tend to forget because we base our understanding of scripture on the last movie we saw on the death of Christ, and though sufficiently graphic and bloody for most, it may not convey what was really going on. What this tells me is that Annas and Caiphas were both standing there, in a sense performing in detail the slaughter of this perfect lamb, and having laid hands so brutally upon Him, they are sending him off into the wilderness of death (or so they think.)

The Jews saw what Pilate did as an insult, in total opposition to all their screaming and demands. These claims, that Jesus made, were the ultimate insult as far as they were concerned, and their full intent was to make him go away as quickly as possible. How ironic that those words, nailed above his head, ring out through history, still declaring that this was the Messiah, willing to accept all those that recognize fully who he is, just as he did that criminal that asked him. 

John 19:22 CEV But Pilate told them, "What is written will not be changed!"

While Pilate was able to see that there was no reason to kill Jesus, he did not seem to have the backbone to reject the demands of the chief priests. This statement demonstrates that he could stand firm when he wanted to.

Play a scenario out in your mind for a moment. What if he had taken the sign down? Would it make any difference? I don't think so, but it stayed, so God must have had a more significant reason. Again, the sign has rang out the kingship of Jesus throughout history.

John 19:23,24 ESV When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, "They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." So the soldiers did these things,

It seems such a selfish and insignificant scene. Soldiers tend to do things that play into the dominance theme, and while we may not want it done to us, we think little of it. The images I pull up in my head are mostly from movies and many make sense. Why wouldn't you strip the man down to a minimal amount of clothing if you wanted to do the most damage to his body?

The damage was done and he is still alive. With every nerve ending sending impulses to the brain, putting clothing back on him would only enhance the pain. And there is the act of cruelly leading him back out to the priesthood to show them their king.

What did he have on his body?

Not a beautiful white 400 thread count Egyptian cotton sheet. He had the classic attire of any decent Jew. Now how would I know this? Because when he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink she responded with,

John 4:9 ESV The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

How did she know that he was Jew?

He looked just like anybody else with one huge exception.

Numbers 15:38-40 ESV "Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. (39) And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. (40) So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

He wore the garments of a Jew, garments still worn today, and even in this it fulfills prophecy.

Psalms 22:18 ESV they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

 

[If you do not know this Jesus Christ I speak of, it is really quite simple, and takes a simple faith. Israel at one point merely had to look, in faith, at the serpent upon the pole. Jesus represented the same thing that serpent did when He was hanging there. All you have to do is look to him in faith that he will deliver you from the deathly sting of Satan. Do you have to believe that? No, and many of Israel chose not to believe it either and died in that lonely desert. This Jesus is real; he put himself willingly on that cross knowing full well what it would cost, but also knowing the reward the Father would gain, the restoration of a family, that is you. Ask him to come into your life and rescue you from the wrath that is about to be poured out upon the world. He already forgave you; your sins have been wiped away, and He did that knowing full well that you will mess up again, we all do. It is that faith that we place in Him that makes us whole. You are loved, wanted, and welcome, so just come to him.]

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Some thoughts as I read through Job 31

Job 31:1 "I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?

This jumped out at me, always has. Pastor Chuck went off on sexual purity, and I believe that this speaks toward that, but when I consider the age and maturity of Job I find it hard to believe that he is still struggling with such strong passions.

Perhaps that is not the point. Everyman, until the day he dies, is able to see what is beautiful around him. That in itself is not the problem, but looking ravenously for the beauty is, and taking your thoughts to the next step, what you could do with such a magnificent creature, moves you into the depravity of adultery, and all sorts of sexual sins.

Christ obliterated the penalty before God that comes with sin; sin we were imputed with. I have been inundated with talk of sin since I can remember, and I feel as though focusing on sin only makes me more skilful at it, but I cannot ignore it, the Apostle John made sure of that when he said, “ If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NASB )

So it (sin) is always there; almost as though it is part of our DNA, a virus called sin, waiting for an appropriate moment to awaken. But God, through Christ's obedience on the cross, made it possible for our spirits to be alive in Him once more. Romans 6:6 "knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;"

So that we would no longer be slaves to sin! We have what it takes to stand against the enemy, even if it means you call others and ask them to support you, or drag you out of that situation.

We only become the idiot when we refuse to ask for help. Refusal to do that will eventually see you become so mired that it takes a crane to pull you out of the pit you put yourself in, and in some cases, years to scrape the muck off you, even the possibility of your own death.

In my situation, I thought I could handle it. After all, I am a man, and we rock headed men think we can muscle our way out of anything; I was wrong and fought my weaknesses and fears for years with no success. I was also so ashamed and afraid of what others might think of me that I would not ask for help. I was the guy that needed a crane to dig me out of the wreckage I created, and it took years for me to find anything close to an emotional state that I would consider normal. Oh sure, I knew God loved me, I just did not think anyone else did.

Here is part of the problem with not asking for help. In many cases the fear is real because you may not have access to a Christ based recovery group. While worldly groups like AA, NA, or SA have been the salvation of many, the focus is not on God's love and ability to change. Beside that you are surrounded most of the time by people who are not interested in relating to the God you serve. Should you attempt to tell your problems to the general public – a church body, many will stab you in the back, and some will even accost you with a full frontal attack. That is not the goal, so you need to find people that have been honest and walked the road to recovery themselves. You need to find safe people, and even in recovery groups not all people are safe. Leaders are there because they have proven track records of recovery, and in many cases have walked the humiliating road back to sanity.

Does any of that mean that God changed his mind about you? Not hardly. He started on this path of love toward you before you were ever born. I am sorry that you could not see that; it had the power to change your life, and still does today, no matter where you are at.

Consider the story we call the Prodigal son (You can find the story in Luke chapter 15). A young man, a Jew, that would have no compulsion to even go near a hog, finds himself not only having to feed them, but to eat the same slop that they ate to survive. He finally comes to his senses and decides that returning back to the father he offended, and working as a slave for him would be better than this. The father had no experience like this son had; how could he relate? But he was a man of compassion and an incomprehensible compassion. This father had been watching and waiting for the return of this son and when he saw the son from a long way off he ran to him, throwing his arms around him, putting his cloak upon him, making a feast for him, and reintroduced him back into the family.

So, let's say that focusing on maintaining and building your relationship with God is more important to me now than thinking about the sins that so easily beset us. I am an expert at diving into sin. But what I am not so expert at is developing the kind of relationship that Enoch had, and he learned how to have this relationship from the man that brought such destruction on us all, Adam.

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Jesus came for one reason.

“My life was not meant to be an example to copy. Being my follower is not trying to ‘be like Jesus’, it means for your independence to be killed. I came to give you life, real life, my life. We will come and live our life inside of you, so that you begin to see with our eyes and hear with our ears, and touch with our hands, and think like we do. But we will never force that union on you. If you want to do your thing, have it. Time is on our side.” ~Jesus speaking From the book, The Shack

Jesus came for one reason, to give us life, and to give us safe passage back to the Father should we choose to follow him by believing in him.

Hebrews 6:17-20 GNB To those who were to receive what he promised, God wanted to make it very clear that he would never change his purpose; so he added his vow to the promise. (18) There are these two things, then, that cannot change and about which God cannot lie. So we who have found safety with him are greatly encouraged to hold firmly to the hope placed before us. (19) We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary. (20) On our behalf Jesus has gone in there before us and has become a high priest forever, in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

I had to stop, overwhelmed by this realization once again. My eyes filled with tears as I thought, why me? I have done nothing to deserve such love. It can only be because of the strength and mercy of the Father. 

In reading the Hebrews passage above I can see clearly at verse 19 that Jesus is that hope. Hope is a person, and he is safe, sure, and an anchor for our lives. 

With that in mind we finish off chapter 17 of John's gospel. The anchor and future high priest was standing there encouraging them in the hope. There was still so much for the Holy Spirit to show in the future, but the basis for hope stood before them. 

If we continued in chapter 17 I believe I would look at verses 21 and 24.

John 17:20-21 NASB "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; (21) that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

I included verse 20 because it tends to clarify and answer the question that verse 21 presents me. 

Who is he talking about when he says, “that they may all be one;”?

We should all understand by this point that he is talking about, and to, the disciples directly, and future believers indirectly.

Why would he have to make such a statement unless they did not have the unity he had hoped for?

If Jesus had to say this, then they were not one with each other. I think the term we are looking for is unity. The Greek word is heis, and means the numeral one. That can only mean cohesiveness. 

Now I want to look for examples of how the disciples reacted with each other.

I struggled for a moment, but then my mind pictured the boys struggling with each other, and then verbally pulling at Jesus as they fought to gain superiority with him by getting Jesus to allow one to sit next to him at the throne of power. You can see this here:

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She *said to Him, "Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left." But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They *said to Him, "We are able." He *said to them, "My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father." And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. "It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, (Matthew 20:20-26 NASB)

“....even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us,..”

There is something about this that is so intense it overwhelms me. Why would it do that?

Because Jesus is speaking about the relationship that I can and should have with the Father. 

I believe that Jesus always had his prayers answered, therefore there is nothing on God's part that is preventing me from living in a continual relationship like Jesus did.

One might think that Jesus had fewer distractions than we do; perhaps, they were definitely different, more relational, but stress is still an inconvenience.

John 17:24 NASB "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

This statement is filled with Joy. I am not sure why I said that, especially when you consider what he has said to the disciples and what he is about to endure, but we have this as our hope. 

Again the idea that Jesus always had his prayers answered tells me that we will be with him, where he is. And for those who struggle, trying to comprehend what we will be doing in Heaven, we have other verses to support the this glory which we will share in.

Psalms 31:19 AMP Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear, revere, and worship You, goodness which You have wrought for those who trust and take refuge in You before the sons of men!

Isaiah 64:4 AMP For from of old no one has heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who [earnestly] waits for Him.

“..for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

I find myself frequently reminding myself that God chose me. Why would I do that? Because I am damaged and have to be reminded that I am loved and wanted.

How many people are we surrounded by that are like that; so broken that they have to be reminded that they are wanted.

Ephesians 1:4-6 GW Before the creation of the world, he chose us through Christ to be holy and perfect in his presence. (5) Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this (6) so that the kindness he had given us in his dear Son would be praised and given glory.

1 Peter 1:18-21 GNB For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life handed down by your ancestors. It was not something that can be destroyed, such as silver or gold; (19) it was the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or flaw. (20) He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world and was revealed in these last days for your sake. (21) Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.

Conclusion: We have an intercessor who appears for us continually to guarantee our safe delivery to the haven above and our keeping along the way. He prays not for the world but for those who are His, and those that will be his in the future.

That they might be preserved in their salvation;

that they might have His joy;

that they might be fortified against the evils of the world;

that they might be purified through His Word;

that they might demonstrate oneness with Him;

that they might be edified in Him,

and at last behold His glory.

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• True Identity (mubiana.com)

Something I said triggered him off.

Something I said during bible study triggered it off, and although I cannot remember the verse reference he used in rebuttal, the theme went like this:

Matthew 7:21-23 NASB "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (22) "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' (23) "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

His rebuttal was directed at two things.

1. Not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven.
   And
2. A an underlying, massive rejection by Jesus/God saying, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME,'

I think I have shared previously how broken I was. I had to relearn who this God was that loved me; in doing so I found a God of mercy beyond my comprehension. Maybe my eyes finally opened and I could see the God of mercy I had never seen before, but as I said I was a broken man with a broken understanding, and the only God I knew was a God of judgment and punishment.

We, as children would have to say this cutesy little prayer at night.

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

I pray the Lord my soul to take

Sounds benign enough, but if you are raised with the concept of God sending you to hell over one little thing, such as, taking His name in vain - taking his name in vain was defined by my mothers personal morality standards, which were unwritten, seemingly impromptu rules that she dished out as she manipulated us children. 

If I am honest, this persons interruption, which assured that everyone was focused on him and his immense scriptural understanding, while I was leading bible study made me furious. I had to choose to be diplomatic and polite when everything in me wanted to lash out. 

What got my attention as he was taking issue was the emphasis that he put on, “not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven;”as though this applied to believers. This rhetoric was associated with some other comments he made, the passage that he referred to, and Jesus speaking about Judas in John 16 and 17. 

As I said, the basis of his rant effectively followed the same theme as Matthew 7. Matthew 7 was a continuation of Christ's sermon on the mount.

It would seem that the emphasis is on the true believer and what it is that identifies us as such.

True disciples of Christ will be men and women cautious in their judgment of others; conscious of their own faults; confident and earnest in prayer; wary of false teachers and hypocritical profession; building all eternal hopes upon the firm Rock, faith in the Word of God and Christ Jesus.

Summarized Bible, Complete Summary of the Bible, By KEITH L. BROOKS

If I started at Matthew 7:1-2, the opening statement says, “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured back to you.”

But the person choosing to disagree was not concerned with judgment, or why God did not know these people he is turning away. He seemed to focus on the idea that these were believers, not meeting some standard, getting turned away from the kingdom. 

I like to think about assertions and passages like this in terms of context. Even though it was a mixed crowd that sat and listened to Jesus this day, it safe to assume that it is primarily a Jewish crowd, a religious crowd, and nothing Jesus said got past them, and it appropriately stung. 

Some purposefully listened with a critical ear; pharisees who stood by were looking for excuses to kill him.

Sadly a belief that focuses on meeting some standard is based in works and our salvation is not by works, but by faith.

Acts 13:38-39 MSG I want you to know, my very dear friends, that it is on account of this resurrected Jesus that the forgiveness of your sins can be promised. (39) He accomplishes, in those who believe, everything that the Law of Moses could never make good on. But everyone who believes in this raised-up Jesus is declared good and right and whole before God.

Romans 5:1 YLT Having been declared righteous, then, by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 9:30 GW So what can we say? We can say that non-Jewish people who were not trying to gain God's approval won his approval, an approval based on faith.

Jesus appeared to Saul (the Pharisee) as he was on his way to Damascus to persecute those of the way. He told Saul what his job was going to be, and this is what he said,

Acts 26:18 NASB to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.'

Perhaps I have established that who we are and how we got here is based solely upon our belief in, Jesus Christ, the one that had to do the hard work (suffering severe blows and death) on our behalf. The closest that anyone came to being a believer prior to the Holy Spirit coming might be the disciples. Jesus referred to them as, “those whom you have given me.” I am not clear on this so I can only speak from assumption. 

We cannot make anything close to that assumption with this crowd. They came because they wanted what he could give them, food and healing. They wanted little else.

I think it is safe to say that Jesus statement, “ I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME..”, had nothing to do with followers of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 7:21-23 begins much earlier in the chapter, but lets just focus on some close proximity statements.

Matthew 7:15-16 GW "Beware of false prophets. They come to you disguised as sheep, but in their hearts they are vicious wolves. (16) You will know them by what they produce. "People don't pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they?

I want you to consider several things here.

1. False prophets. They probably look normal.

God attempted to define for Moses and Aaron things that would indicate that someone was a prophet. You can find this in Numbers 12:6. The problem is that should you challenge someone about their qualifications they could tell you anything to appease you.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NIV If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, (2) and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," (3) you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. (4) It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. (5) That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

If you read the passage above then you picked up on two things. This person attempts to lead you away from the true God, and you are to get them out of your midst. 

(I am not giving you the carte blanche to harm anyone.)

2. They come disguised as sheep. I mentioned that they probably look normal. Have you got some perception of what a Christian looks like? Throw it out because it is wrong. We are all shapes and sizes, and some of us are tattered, while others wear fine clothes. None of that makes a stitch of difference in God's eyes. If he needs you appropriately dressed, to stand before kings, then he will make sure that happens. What you need to understand is that as you sit there in your comfortable church pew, you could be sitting next to a wolf in sheeps clothing and not know it.
   
   
3. You will know them by what they produce. Jesus, it would seem, threw a little sarcasm at us when he said, "People don't pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they? So the wolf will be trying to get you work in opposition to God's standard, a baseline laid out by His word. Sadly that requires that you READ God's word for yourself and not be dependent upon what some “teacher” tells you; that includes me.

What kinds of things can you expect to see being produced when the wolf gets involved?

Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-

Romans 1:29-32 NIV They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, (30) slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; (31) they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. (32) Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

You can find more should you choose to look, things that speak to the works of the flesh. Now those things are covered in the passages from Romans but just to show you I will give a little more.

Galatians 5:19-21 NIV The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; (20) idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions (21) and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I can imagine what many are saying right now, "but these are works of the flesh, common to every man", and you would be right, but they are in total opposition to God, and the reason we were born into sin, for Adam did exactly this, when he chose to do his own selfish thing, allowing for sin to enter into the world through man. Life and liberty re-entered through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

Perhaps the question you should be asking is: What is a false prophet?

In Acts 13 we see Saul (he had not changed his name yet) and Barnabas traveling, and teaching God's word to the Jews (That may be important).

Acts 13:6-12 NIV They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, (7) who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. (8) But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. (9) Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, (10) "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? (11) Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. (12) When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

Did you notice that the man Bar-Jesus was a Jew. A wolf in sheep's clothing. 

So the original premise was that, according to the guy that disrupted the flow of bible study that day, some Christians will not be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. Let's go back to what might have been his backing for such a statement.

Matthew 7:21-23 NASB "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (22) "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' (23) "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

If I look back at the experience of Barnabas and Saul (Paul), then what I see in this man Elymas, is a man, learned in the Talmud, the law and prophets; able to argue against Saul's teachings (you really should be very skillful in the same literature that you wish to argue against if you want to defeat or discourage someone), and he performs amazing “miracles” that aid in his presentation and the contestation of others, at this moment the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. 

Elymas was not a believer in Jesus Christ at this point and perhaps not a fair argument. The writer of Hebrews, in chapter 13:5, to followers of Christ (believers), states, 'because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."'

Our men's bible study has been slogging our way through the book of John. But that gospel is John's demonstration that Jesus, on this earth, was God, and therefore a huge and significant demonstration of God's character as seen in Jesus' actions and words.

John 10:27-30 NIV My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (28) I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. (29) My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. (30) I and the Father are one."

If I based my understanding about the security of my relationship on this alone I could be confident, but I have showed you more. 

The idea and reference for God casting aside some who claim to be his comes out the Great White Throne judgment. This happens at the end of the millennial reign. Look this up in Revelation 20:11–15. Jesus was talking about this very moment when he described a separation of the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:31 – 46) 

Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.

It is possible to develop side essays on virtually everything that shows up on these pages; that was not the point. The point was to address the question of whether God will choose to throw us aside someday. Should you think that your pettiest of sins will change his heart about you, you are wrong. Christ's death was an all inclusive payment for the sins of the whole world, then and forever, so you are okay in that regard, as long as you have accepted Jesus Christ as the one who paid that price for you. 

Another strong argument as to how much he loves and cares for you comes from that famous verse, Romans 3:16. God, so loved a broken and unloving world, that he, regardless of how that world might trash his love, sent his only Son as a sacrifice to save it. 

He cares for you, and should you choose to follow him, he will never let go of you. In this you can trust.

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