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TEN-FOLD DESCRIPTION OF IDOLS IN PSALM 115

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TEN-FOLD DESCRIPTION OF IDOLS IN PSALM 115
IDOLS

  1. They are silver and gold (Psalm 115:4).
  2. They are the work of men’s hands.
  3. They have mouths, but speak not (Psalm 115:5).
  4. They have eyes, but see not.
  5. They have ears, but hear not (Psalm 115:6).
  6. They have noses, but smell not.
  7. They hands, but handle not (Psalm 115:7).
  8. They have feet, but walk not.
  9. They have throat, but speak not.
  10. They are helpless like their makers and those who trust them (Psalm 115:8).

 Dake

HEALING BY HIS STRIPES, BUT NOT YET.

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HEALING BY HIS STRIPES, BUT NOT YET.

healing

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” Isaiah 53:4-9

The Lord’s healing ministry validated the Old Testament claims that Israel’s Messiah would, be among other things, the healer. Much of His earthly ministry consisted of healings. As noted, the purpose was to verify that He was their Messiah and King. However, instead of accepting Him, the religious leaders attributed His healings to the devil. “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.  And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” Matthew 12:22-24.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…there is healing in His strips, but not yet.[/perfectpullquote]

When Israel rejected their king and the Kingdom of Heaven, the kingdom miracles and ministry began to disappear and did so during the Acts period. God revealed the mystery and ministry of grace to the Apostle Paul. It is evident that apostolic miracles were disappearing. The following will show that trend. “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” 1 Timothy 5:23. It is evident that this was real wine, and it had medicinal qualities. Timothy is also told to drink “a little.” That would not be necessary for grape juice.  One wonders why Paul did not use his healing ministry to heal Erastus. “Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.” 2 Timothy 4:20. We see the same in the following.” Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.  For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.  For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.” Philippians 2:25-27. We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was, but his prayers and faith could not rid him of it. God said, “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-9. You are not yet healed by His stripes.

If we rightly divide the Word of God, we must acknowledge that Isaiah is addressed to the nation of Israel, and chapter fifty-three is a realization by the nation of Israel that they did not know or acknowledge their King at His first advent. The truth of the passage will be understood by Israel after the rapture of the church, and they are converted. Although the text was written seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, it still is not acknowledged or understood by Israel. The passage will be comprehended by the remnant during the Tribulation or the Millennium. Perhaps the following text will shed more light on the subject. “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Hebrews 2:8-9.  Yes, there is healing in His strips, but not yet.

ARE THEY LOST OR ARE THEY SAVED?

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ARE THEY LOST OR ARE THEY SAVED?

Comments on 1 Cor. 6:9

“Observe here, 1. Our apostle’s positive assertion, and categorical proposition, That the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; whereby unrighteousness, is meant injustice and injuriousness towards our neighbour, as appears by the context, which speaks of defrauding: unrighteousness will as certainly shut out of heaven, as ungodliness.

Observe next, The large catalog of sins which the apostle reckons up, that will shut out of heaven: uncleanness, idolatry, inordinate love of this world, drunkenness, etc. For the confirmation of his proposition, he proceedeth to the enumeration of the several sins destructive of salvation: which are not to be understood copulatively, but disjunctively: not as if he only who is guilty of all these shall miss of heaven, but he that lives in any one of these unrepented of; if he doth not forsake his wicked course of life, he shall never see the kingdom of God: whoever allows and tolerates himself in any one sin, is certainly in a state of damnation.-William Burket’s notes

“Know ye not, etc. By unrighteousness here you may understand what is opposed to strict integrity. The unrighteous, then, that is, those who inflict injury on their brethren, who defraud or circumvent others, who, in short, are intent upon their own advantage at the expense of injuring others, will not inherit the kingdom of God. That by the unrighteous here, as for example adulterers, and thieves and covetous, and revilers, he means those who do not repent of their sins, but obstinately persist in them, is too manifest to require that it should be stated. The Apostle himself, too, afterwards expresses this in the words employed by him, when he says that the Corinthians formerly were such The wicked, then, do inherit the kingdom of God, but it is only in the event of their having been first converted to the Lord in true repentance, and having in this way ceased to be wicked. For although conversion is not the ground of pardon, yet we know that none are reconciled to God but those who repent. The interrogation, however, is emphatic, for it intimates that he states nothing but what they themselves know, and is a matter of common remark among all pious persons.” –John Calvin

“The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom – The unrighteous, αδικοι , those who act contrary to right, cannot inherit, for the inheritance is by right. He who is not a child of God has no right to the family inheritance, for that inheritance is for the children. If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, Ro 8:17. There are here ten classes of transgressors which the apostle excludes from the kingdom of God; and any man who is guilty of any one of the evils mentioned above is thereby excluded from this kingdom, whether it imply the Church of Christ here below or the state of glory hereafter.

Several of the evils here enumerated will not bear to be particularly explained; they are, however, sufficiently plain of themselves, and show us what abominations were commonly practiced among the Corinthians.”-Adam Clark

“…their tricking and defrauding of one another, with other sins they were guilty of; which, if not repented of, would show, that notwithstanding their profession, they were destitute of the grace of God, were unfit to be in the kingdom of God, in a Gospel church state here below, and would be shut out of the kingdom of heaven hereafter.” –John Gill

“He puts it to them as a plain truth, of which they could not be ignorant, that such sinners should not inherit the kingdom of God. The meanest among them must know thus much, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 6:9), shall not be owned as true members of his church on earth, nor admitted as glorious members of the church in heaven. All unrighteousness is sin; and all reigning sin, nay, every actual sin committed deliberately, and not repented of, shuts out of the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew Henry

“And he presses the point that they were to cherish no illusions as to this, for none of the characters pointed to in verse 9 and 10 should ever dwell with God.”-Georg Williams

“Those who practice such sins are not Christians.”- William McDonald

“The kingdom of God. Cannot be saved; cannot enter into heaven. Cmt. on Mt 3:2. This may refer either to the kingdom of God in heaven, or to the church on earth–most probably the former. But the sense is the same essentially, whichever is meant. The man who is not fit to enter into the one, is not fit to enter into the other. The man who is fit to enter the kingdom of God on earth, shall also enter into that in heaven.”- Albert Barns

THE NEW COVENANT WITH ISRAEL.

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THE NEW COVENANT WITH ISRAEL.

COVENANT                                             

IT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU TO KNOW THAT MOST CHRISTIANS DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COVENANT AND A TESTAMENT. ODDLY ENOUGH, MANY ASSUME THAT THE CHURCH, THE BODY OF CHRIST, IS NOW UNDER THE NEW COVENANT. ALTHOUGH THERE ARE EIGHTY-FIVE CONTRASTs BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW COVENANT, NEITHER THE OLD OR THE NEW WAS MADE WITH THE CHURCH. IT IS CLEAR THEY WERE MADE WITH ISRAEL.

 

  1. JESUS IS THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT.
  2. THE OLD COVENANT WAS ONE OF CONDEMNATION.
  3. THE NEW WAS MADE WITH ISRAEL AND JUDAH.
  4. THE NEW IS NOTHING LIKE THE OLD.
  5. THE NEW COVENANT WILL BE INSTALLED IN THE MILLENNIUM.
  6. GOD WILL CONVERT THE WHOLE NATION. “SO ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED.”
  7. THE LORD WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND ISRAEL WILL BE HIS PEOPLE.
  8. THERE WILL NO WITNESSING FOR ALL IN THE LAND WILL KNOW HIM.
  9. GOD WILL IN MERCY, REMOVE THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS AND THEIR INIQUITIES HE WILL NEVER REMEMBER.
  10. THIS IS THE NEW COVENANT PROMISED TO ISRAEL IN JEREMIAH 31:31-34.

“But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” Hebrews 8:6-13

 

MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE?

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Was Matthias a legitimate Apostle?

casting-lots “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.  And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.  And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,  That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.  And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” Acts 1:21-26.

It has been claimed by some that the Eleven were in a hurry in the choosing of Matthias, and therefore he was not Gods choice. In other words, the Eleven should have waited until Paul was converted and he should have been numbered with the Eleven.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Lord never rebuked them for their choice…[/perfectpullquote]

We believe this argument is absurd and based on nothing but guesswork in order to delegalize the unique apostleship of Paul. The text is clear. The apostles prayed about the matter of a replacement for Judas. It was required that the replacement should have ministered from the beginning of the ministry of the Lord and witnessed His resurrection. Furthermore, to specifically ask for God to lead in the choice. Casting lots were not uncommon in settling the unknown. The lot fell to Matthias and he was numbered with the Twelve. The Lord never rebuked them for their choice, but contrarywise blessed their ministry mightily.

The casting of lots was not only Scriptural, it was also a common practice. The first record in Scripture is in Leviticus 16:8. “And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.” There are many accounts of casting lots in Scripture. The Psalmist said, “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.” Proverbs 16:33. It was firmly believed that the providence of God ruled in the casting of lots to the degree it was never questioned.

Paul was never intended to be one of the Twelve or to have a part in their ministry. He was divinely selected to be the apostle to the Gentiles. “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:” Romans 11:13. He was also chosen to write all the church epistles. Just as many of the Jewish Christians could not reconcile Paul’s ministry, so it is today among many Gentile Christians.