Author: Yskander Arquimides Saucedo

Matthew 4:3 And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If You are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

The word “tempter”in the Greek is the word “peirazo”which means to scrutinize, entice, to examine, test, and prove. Notice in this text, Satan said; “if You are the Son of God,”Satan’s temptation was determined to prove that Christ was not the Son of God, but instead Christ proved that He was. In another sense; “if You are the Son of God,”may also implicate mockery, such as was done in; Matthew 27:40, where it reads; and You destroying the temple and building it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.The Jews did not ask Jesus to come down from the cross so that they may believe, but instead they belittled and mocked Him for saying earlier that, Christ would destroy and rebuild the temple in three days, which was referencing His own body as the Temple. Furthermore; Christ would soon give a greater sign to men affirming and proving Christ is the Son of God. Christ would not prove He is the Son by delivering Himself from the torment of the cross, but instead Christ would prove His Son-ship by delivering Himself from death as He resurrected from the dead conquering death and sin.

As I was studying, I came across a statement by a man named Wetstein, who I found must be Johann Jakob Wettstein. He was an 18^th century Swiss theologian, but not in the likes I would ascribe to. He was a New Testament critic and believed there were areas of mistranslation in the Codex Alexandrinus, which was a 5^th century translation of the Greek New Testament. Some areas he believed to be mistranslated are passages referring to the divinity and deity of Christ. He believed there was a misinterpreting of the word “God” with the word “who.” For example; the King James Version of 1Timothy 3:16, where it reads; “God was manifest in the flesh, manifest means; clearly see, shown, visible, recognized, and understood. That being said; we believe the God in this verse to be Christ, who was manifest in the flesh. Wettstein would teach that the proper translation is supposed to be “who was manifest in the flesh” in the stead of “God manifest in the flesh.”The entire verse in the Modern King James Version reads:

1Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among nations, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.

Wetstein would claim it is supposed to read; And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among nations, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.

This is highly a critical issue because if it is truly to be understood as merely Christ being manifested in the flesh; then it does not necessarily mean Christ as God manifested in the flesh, merely meaning that Christ was seen by angels in heaven, preached to the nation, and so on. It would rob this verse of every implication of Christ being manifested as God in the flesh. If taken seriously this may cause many to doubt the divinity as the second person of the trinity. Do you see how Satan operates in his cunningness and temptation to man? The enemy has been after the mind of God since the beginning. Guard your mind by laboring in the word of God, so you may not be deceived.

2Corinthians 11:3 But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, so your thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity due to Christ.

Suppose Wetstein is right, and the original manuscript does read as “who” instead of “God.”There are still several other passages that testify and implicate Christ as God and always existing as God, which would justify the changing of “who”, too “God.”Furthermore, if in the Greek manuscript is truly written as who instead of God, then the original translators of the Greek to English knew it was in reference to Christ, and by God’s merciful providence wrote these verses where it implied the divinity of Christ for the readers sake because,1 not all are meant to become bible scholars, and learn Greek and Hebrew; but all are supposed to seek to rightly divide the Word of God.

What I find disturbing is what I found when I looked to see how modern translations have wrote this verse. Most modern English translations have now substituted God, for the noun who, or he. That single detail changes the context of the verse. The NIV reads; “He appeared in the flesh,” of course Christ appeared in the flesh, which is obvious, what is not obvious anymore is that God appeared in the flesh, which would then imply to us that Christ is God. The New world Living Translation, “Christ was revealed in a human body.”English Standard Version, “He was manifested in the flesh.”The Berean study and literal bible, New American Standard Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible, the ISV, NET, and so many more have removed God from the text, and instituted a different noun not exclusive to just he, or who;I consider this a compromise. Translations that have kept God in the text are; The King James Version, Modern King James Version, King James 2000 Bible, American King James Version,  The Jubilee Bible 2000, Darby Bible Translation, Webster’s Bible Translation, and Young’s Literal Translation. As for me and my household; we will be abiding by any version of the King James.

Satan told Jesus, “Command that these stones be made bread.”If there was nothing significant about this, Satan would not have used it. It is very interesting that this verse is cross referenced with Genesis chapter 3 verses 1-5. Where the Serpent caused Eve to doubt the word of God, and deceived her into disobeying God. Not because she was hungry, but with her it was because she fell for the sophisticated seduction of his slithering tongue. Likewise Satan tried a similar method; in addition waiting until Jesus was at the end of His fast, knowing than men are most vulnerable when they are most hungry. In Genesis 25: 29-34; Jacob was boiling a soup as his older brother Esau was coming from the field extremely hungry. Jacob told his brother to sell him his birth right for the price of a meal. Esau agreed and gave an oath to give him his inheritance for the price of one meal.

Consider the ramifications of Jesus failing the test; such a thought seems almost unfathomable. Satan is not omniscient, and his intent to test Christ reveals that he believed Christ may fail. It reveals Satan’s impotence; his lack of knowledge and power, “if you are the Son of God” served not to assure Christ of His deity; it was even heard from heaven after His baptism.Satan knowing the prophecies and the signs of time; no doubt knew this was the Messiah, but what he was not sure about was whether or not Christ in His human incarnate nature may be inclined to sin. The fact that the proposition was even offered to Christ for Him to turn stones into bread, reveals to us Christ’s awesome power He could have received from His Father if He so chose. But just as the fruit was forbidden to Adam and Eve in the Garden; so to it was forbidden by God for Christ to use such power at this time.18^th century Non Conformist Theologian Matthew Poole writes in his English Annotations of the Holy Bible;“The temptation plainly was to the use of means which God did not allow him (explain), to relieve him in his distress of hunger, to distrust the providence of God in supporting of him.”If Christ looking at these stones, which perhaps at the state of hunger He was in already probably looked like small loaves of bread; would have attempted such a power, He would have failed. His death on the cross would have been invalid for the redemption of souls, invalid for the remission of sins, because in order to justify sinners into heaven; someone would have to obey all of God’s commandments for our sake since we are incapable. That hope was being balanced on the obedience of Christ to His Father, which He was victorious in defeating the schemes of the Devil. Now all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ have remission of sins and the gift of eternal life with Christ in paradise, where He went to prepare a place for each of us who love Him.

Now; in response to Satan’s attempt of a shrewd and cunning proposal, Jesus replies with:

Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

It was common to the Jews whenever they reference a scripture to begin with “as it is written.” Jesus begins His reply with the same custom as He cites:

Deuteronomy 8:3 And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and then He fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know it, so that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of Jehovah man shall live.

Isn’t it interesting here that Jesus took a passage from the Old and applied it to His particular situation. Yet He did it soundly without distorting the context from which it was written. As the Israelites were allowed to be hungry in the desert; God then provided bread for them to eat from the miraculous mystery of God; so that His people learn to trust and have faith in God, that God is the reason for their subsistence. It is not by the efforts of the Jews coming together to survive, but by God who provides every gift which comes from heaven, and in their case it was bread which rained from heaven.

Just as the Israelite were allowed to go hungry; so was Christ allowed going hungry for forty days and nights, and just as God supernaturally provided bread from heaven; Christ knew God would provide for the Son everything necessary to fulfill the Fathers will. Christ knew He did not need to depend on Himself performing a miracle for His own survival. All of His miracles were for the sake of others; can anyone think any miracle Christ performed with a self imposed interest? Furthermore; just as God did not forsake His people in the wilderness for the forty days and nights, then neither would God the Father forsake the Son of God in the wilderness during His forty days and forty nights. What amazing consistency we find in the scriptures! What an astounding intelligent design! How can the similarity between the events of Deuteronomy 8 and the events of Christ in the wilderness for forty days be an accident, or mere coincidence? I truly believe with faith that Deuteronomy 8 typifies the advent of Christ in the wilderness. How can anyone believe that God has not been in control of every aspect of existence from all eternity? What an amazing God we have.

For the Christian there is a life application for us from this as well. Many of us may be in the wilderness several times in our lives. Some of us have seen the power of God’s grace incline us to endure trialing times. It is important to remember that just as God provided for the Jews in the desert, and provided for Christ, and rewarding Him with food after He passed His test; that God will provide a way out from your temptation so long as you persevere in your faith. Remember that the best reward and provision that God may give you has already been giving to you if you believe in Christ. Just as God gave heavenly bread to sustain the physical lives of the Jews in the wilderness; God has already provided you with the heavenly bread to sustain your eternal life with God in heaven, which is the bread of life, which is the Son of God.

Our God is a faithful God in every respect. We as finite creatures born in sin are not absolutely faithful. The Online Etymology Dictionary defines faithfulness in respect to Christian practice as, “sincerely religious, devout, pious.” Webster’s Dictionary defines it as, “Firm in adherence to the truth and to the duties of religion.” In a secular sense it may be understood as someone who is honest, trustworthy, and reliable, which we know from Romans 3, that there are none except for Christ. The word faithful is a compound word composed of faith+ful. For the Christian this expresses that the Christian is supposed to be full of faith. Not full of faith in the sense that we are describing the faith that God gives us in order that we may use as the faculty within us to believe in His Holy Son Jesus Christ; for example:

Romans 10:17 Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Faith is of hearing means that faith comes to man by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. No man is naturally born with faith. Faith is given to us as a gift from God so no man may boast in salvation as if we had something to do with it. Faith is given freely by God to us through the Gospel.

Matthew 13:13 reads; Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not; nor do they understand.

The second clause of Romans 10:17 reads hearing by the word of God; meaning that true spiritual hearing means understanding, which only comes by the Word of God; which is capitalized in Romans 10; therefore, we receive our understanding from Christ alone who is the living Word of God who gives us faith and understanding through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

To give testimony and cast all doubts away about Jesus Christ being the Word of God:

Revelations 19:13 reads; And He had been clothed in a garment dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

In relation to the garments of Christ being dipped in blood; John Gill writes, “Either in his own, (blood) by which he became the Saviour of his church and people; or else in the blood of his saints, he now comes to avenge; or rather in the blood of his enemies, with which he appears as stained, before the battle is fought, the victory being sure, and their slaughter unavoidable,” (Gill). All three propositions from Gill hold great validity, but I believe the last two propositions are closer to the context. Jesus Christ in this chapter is coming to make war against His enemies. Vengeance for His saints is taken into His own hands. Christ reveals to us His faithfulness to His martyrs who have been slain. Christ reveals for us His unwavering faithfulness to righteousness as He comes to destroy the wicked. There are no prisoners taken here, no mercy is shown to those who have rejected God, no love is extended or exists for those who reject the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Christ will be faithful to His Holiness in judging and condemning the wicked. There are no tears here from God and Christ, no remorse for how they destroy sinners. Christ is not in Heaven at the right hand of the Father interceding on behalf of those in hell; Christ is in Heaven at the right hand of the Father interceding only on behalf of those on earth who currently believe in Christ, as it is written in Romans 8:34, where the word “us” is in reference only to believers. Consider two cross references of Revelation 19:13, which are:

Revelation 14:20  And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even to the bridles of the horses, for the space of a thousand, six hundred stadia.

Psalms 58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus washed His Disciples feet with water, but Christ will wash His feet with the blood of the wicked.

Nevertheless; the primary context of this teaching of God’s attribute of faithfulness; is in respect of God’s reliability, loyalty, credibility, trustworthiness of His being, promises, and His word. In respect to man being full of faith; it’s not primarily the saving faith explained in Romans 10:17 and Matthew 13:13, but instead man’s faithfulness in relation to the inability to remain absolutely loyal; especially loyal to our God.

We may recall in past experiences of our own lives; the countless times we have been unfaithful in particular circumstances. It is impossible for man to remain honest. How many of us may recall just one week in our lives, where we did not tell one lie? For some of us it goes further as just one day without telling a lie. The fallen state of man does not possess the ability to remain faithful to his own integrity. How many of us may recall the countless times we have told someone, and when someone has told us; “I will meet you there at this hour,” and when the hour came we or they were not there. Even worse; for those of us who are married, how many times have we disappointed our wives? For some perhaps have been unfaithful in the wedding bed, and for some at the least have been unfaithful in thought; nevertheless, in action or thought we are incapable of being faithful to the one we are supposed to care for as Christ loved His church, our wives. Even worst of all; the innumerable times we have disobeyed the commandments of God. Some of us have even gave God our word that if God delivered us from a calamity we would repent of some sin, and when God delivered us we forgot His goodness and went back to our sin like a dog licking his own vomit. We sinful beings are such unfaithful creatures.

In absolute contrast; our God exemplifies nothing of the depravity of man. Instead our God is absolutely faithful in His very being. God is faithful in all of His sovereign rule and dominion of heaven and earth from all eternity. God’s is faithfulness is omnipotent; there is no limit of power to the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God is omnipresent; being evidenced in the life’s of all whom He has saved. God’s faithfulness is immutable; incapable of change and remaining true through all eternity, and to all His promises.

Psalm 89:8 reads O Jehovah, the God of Hosts, who is a strong Jehovah like You? And Your faithfulness is round about You?

Our God is encompassed with His faithfulness. The only thing around His entire atmosphere is faithfulness. From His angels around Him to His very triune being; God can do nothing contrary to being faithful. A W Pink says in regards to His faithfulness that, “He is clothed with it,” (Pink) which I believe he may have derived from a 19^th century Pastor and prolific author; Charles Haddon Spurgeon, also known by various Christian denominations as; “The Prince of Preachers.” One of the books Spurgeon wrote was a commentary on the book of Psalms called, “The Treasury of David.” In commentary to Psalms 89:8 Charles Spurgeon wrote; “He dwells in faithfulness; it is said to be the girdle of the loins of his only-begotten Son, who is the express image of his person,” (Spurgeon) which is consistent with:

Isaiah 11:5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His heart.

We know that Romans chapter 10 the Apostle Paul establishes Jesus Christ as the righteousness of God.

One of the greatest aspects of God’s faithfulness is perhaps His faithfulness to His own word. When we consider how immutable and omnipotent God is; it makes His faithfulness far more relevant. Knowing that God’s spoken word and promises are unchangeable, all powerful, and absolutely faithful; consider these following passages.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?

Psalms 89: 34-36 I will not break My covenant, nor change the thing that has gone out of My lips. 35 Once I have sworn by My holiness that I will not lie to David. 36 His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me.

Thanks to the faithfulness of God; we can be certain that everything that comes out of His mouth, He will bring to pass. Through that covenant spoken of in verse 34; bible scholars agree that this covenant is also in reference with David the Messiah, the Son of David as Christ is called. The covenant made here is the covenant between God the Father and Christ the Son for the redemption of sinners. We who now live in the New Covenant era can attest to the faithfulness of God’s covenant between God and Christ, as we witness by faith the fulfillment of prophecy. “Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”  What God decreed as prophecy concerning His son has come to pass and no man could have stopped it. Just as the Father decreed in eternity past; God’s providence brought it to fruition.

In verse 35 He said; “Once I have sworn by My holiness that I will not lie to David.” What an astonishing thing for God to do. God is not obligated to swear by anything in order to prove to us that He is not a liar as we are. He was and is not obligate to swear by anything in order to prove to us that He will abide by His promises. But because of His love, grace, and empathy for our finite minds, He swears for us. He does not swear by any of His creation. He did not say, I swear by my earth for it is my footstool, neither by the stars which I made, neither by the angels who I created, but instead; God reveals to us how faithful He is by swearing by the most perfect, the most beautiful, the most purest, the most immutable, the most powerful thing we can imagine; God swore by His most precious attribute, His own Holiness!

Deuteronomy 7:9 reads; therefore, know that Jehovah your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.

In context this is written strictly to those who love God and keep His commandments. Remember that our God is the only God in existence. He is a faithful God to His people. God was faithful to keep His covenant and promises with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; showing mercy and never forsaking His people. God delivered them through His awesome power from Egypt. God Jehovah was faithful to deliver nations more powerful and larger than Israel to their feet such as; the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Since God is immutable and does not change; God still does the same for His people today. For those of us who are in Christ; God is faithful to deliver us who love and obey the commandments of God from the greatest threat any sinner may ultimately face, and that is the eternal wrath of God in hell. The following verse of Deuteronomy verse ten reads:

Deuteronomy 7:10 And He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slow to repay him who hates Him. He will repay him to his face.

Repent of your sins and believe in Christ while you live in this physical realm, so that you may be a subject of God’s mighty faithfulness as a savior, or you will know God’s mighty faithfulness as a judge, and receive what the wicked deserves most  most; His eternal condemnation. Therefore confess you are a sinner in need of His forgiveness and He will be faithful to forgive and cleans you of all unrighteousness, as it is written in:

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1John 4:15 Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in God.

Matthew 4:2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterwards hungry.

There is something very significant about the forty days and forty nights of fasting from Jesus Christ. In addition there is something very significant of the number forty in relation to God’s astounding miraculous works. In Genesis 7:4 God tells Noah that He will cause it to rain forty days and nights to destroy every living substance that God created. In Genesis 50:3 special physicians were ordered to embalm the body of Joseph’s father Jacob. The Egyptians were known as the best in their craft to preserve the body from putrefaction. The embalming of Jacob’s body lasted forty days. In Exodus 34:28 Moses was at the mountain of Sinai writing the Ten Commandments without eating neither drinking for forty days and forty nights. In Numbers 14 God tells Moses to pick men of each tribe to spy out the land of Cannan, and bring back a SALUTE report to Moses. Their recon mission lasted for forty days. In 1Samuel 17 the Army of Israel and the Army of the Philistines are at a standoff. Before the young David kills Goliath the Giant; Goliath provokes, belittles, mocks, and insults the Army of God for forty days. None in all the Israel army would fight the Philistine because they were afraid. 1Kings 2:11 King David reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. 1Kings 11:42 the son of King David, who was King Solomon reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. 1Kings 19:8 an angel of the Lord awoke Elijah twice, and commanded him to eat food and drink that was prepared for him. It was the only food and water he had for forty days, which was the amount of time he traveled to mount Horeb. In Jonah 3:4 God tells the prophet Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh, and proclaim to the city that they will be overthrown in forty days. Acts 1:3 Jesus Christ after being resurrected appears to His disciples preaching to them the Gospel of the Kingdom for forty days, then He ascended to Heaven. Most of these passages that speak of the number forty are in relation to days. There are still more passages that refer to the number forty in relation to years; for example, Isaac was forty years old when He married Rebecca. Esau was forty years old when he married Judith. The Israelites ate manna from Heaven for forty years. Because of God’s anger He made the Israelites wonder the desert for forty years until that generation that kindled His anger died. Yet still in His anger He showed His mercy by feeding and sustaining their clothing and sandals for forty years, and they lacked nothing because God was with them. There are 27 verses in the bible referencing forty days, and there are 54 verses in the bible referencing forty years.

All these biblical occurrences involving the number 40 are not chance, luck, or coincidence. Those concepts do not exist when an all sovereign God exists; who is in control over all the elements of existence including the lives of men as it is obviously evident throughout the entire bible. Chance and luck are words used by atheists as a substitute for God, as they attempt to explain the extraordinary coincidental circumstances. For example; they will say, “that was lucky,” or “you reap what you sow;” but what they are implying is that there is an invisible force called luck, which is in control of contingent factors. What they are suppressing is the fact that, the invisible force they implicate is the one true living God; our Holy God! This gives verification to Romans 1:16-22 where Paul tells us that, God has revealed Himself to all men within themselves through the invisible things to the visible things, but man suppresses the truth, and in their wisdom they become fools.

Based on scripture, I would agree with 19^th century bible scholar E. W. Bullinger that, the number forty is in “association with a period of probation, trial, and chastisement,” (Bullinger). Bullinger reveals something interesting through the factors of forty which are; 4, 5, 8, and 10. The number 5 according to Bullinger’s book; “Numbers in Scripture,” is the number of grace. In order for grace to be manifested there needs to be a creation and redemption within that creation. There are only three alone who can attribute the work of grace to its creation, and that is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; therefore, the Father + The Son + The Holy Spirit + creation + redemption equals five; the number of grace. The number eight in Hebrew signifies revival and renewal. Consider the seventh day of creation when God rested from a work of perfection. The eighth day which followed was a new beginning. So, 5 multiplied by 8 = 40; which may be translated, as God’s grace given to you to overcome a probation, trial, or chastisement period, which then leads to renewal in your mind, or revival in your spirit for the sake of Christ.

Luke tells us in chapter 4:2 that after the end of fasting forty days and nights Christ was hungry. We see then that although God’s miraculous power was with Him to endure such a fast; His human nature was still relevant, which also indicates that the temptations of Satan where tempting. It is not as if Christ was absolutely passive to the temptations of the Devil, the human nature of Christ was tempted. And so it is with us who desire to serve the Lord, or begin to minister for God; expect temptation to occur. Prepare to endure tribulation before, or during your service to our God. Matthew Henry wrote that; “The assurance of our son-ship is the best preparative for temptation,” (Henry). A son of God is one who recognizes what he is in Christ, one who has acknowledged that he is being conformed to the image of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. A son of God is one who studies the word of God everyday and not just studies but becomes a doer of what the word says. The son-ship between man and God is by adoption thanks to our Savior.

Ephesians 1:5 having predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.

Know your God. Know your Gospel and let nothing pervert it. Stand firm for your faith and know why you believe in the faith you believe in; so you may account for why you believe and be able to give a reason for your hope to those who ask. Satan seeks to destroy like a roaring lion; not physically but cognitively. He seeks to deceive as he did with Adam and Eve, and as he attempted with Christ but failed. So examine your doctrine and theology because whatever system of theology you believe; it will dictate how you interpret the scriptures. Get your knowledge from God’s word, and keep your knowledge in God’s word; so your faith may be strong when it comes time to be tempted. And remember the power of God’s love for those who believe in Christ.

Romans 8:32-39 Truly He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he condemning? It is Christ who has died, but rather also who is raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For Your sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep of slaughter.” 37 But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The omnipotence of God correlates with all of His attributes consistently. We can identify that the power of God is derived from within His own deity and no outside sources or contingencies. All of His decrees are perfect and accomplished by His own power without error or obstruction. All of His knowledge and understanding have no limits and He transcends His knowledge to wherever and to whom He desires by His own will. God’s eternal foreknowledge is not dependant on the actions of man, but instead the actions of men are dependent on the full omnipotence of God’s foreknowledge. God and Christ reign supreme over every aspect of physical existence without limit. The omnipotence of God reveals His supremacy without limitations; nothing happens without the power of God’s permission. God is sovereign with His power and bestows it to whomever He wills. Kings and governments only do the biddings of God with limitations according to the power that God allows them to have. Nothing can ever change the power of God because God is immutable. His omnipotence can never increase or decrease but has eternally been almighty. Perhaps the greatest factor of God’s omnipotence is that God is omnipotently Holy. There are absolutely no limitations to any of God’s attributes; God’s decrees, His knowledge, His foreknowledge, His supremacy, His sovereignty, His immutability, His holiness, His faithfulness, His love, His goodness, His grace, His mercy, and yes even His wrath are omnipotent!

In defining the omnipotence of God, I went to Luis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. Luis Berkhof was an American-Dutch theologian who was professor for about 40 years at Calvin Theological Seminary. Regarding the Omnipotence of God he wrote; “Power in God may be called the effective energy of His nature, or that perfection of His Being by which He is the absolute and highest causality,” (Berkhof).

The power within God’s very nature is energy with an effective outcome to whatever His power or energy is being applied to. It is interesting that Berkhof refers to the perfection of God as the highest causality. Causality implies cause and effect, which is a concept taught in the philosophical branches of metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics is the study of the reality around us such as; time, space, objects, causality, and existence.  Epistemology is the study of the theory of knowledge. Specifically attempting to solve exactly what knowledge is, how to attain it, and be absolutely certain that what one believes is indubitable, meaning something which is certain and cannot be doubted.

Causality; which is cause and effect means that every consequence necessitates an agent being the cause of the effect. For example; if we set up a row of dominoes in a particular pattern and decide to push one domino to cause it to fall on another, we as the agent became the cause of a chain reaction of dominoes falling on top of another until the last one had fallen. We as the agent could only control a small aspect of cause and effect. There are several contingencies we as an agent are not able to control because we are impotent instead of omnipotent. In difference to man; if God were to push the domino, He would know every aspect of the domino, science, and atmosphere around it; that God would have maximal control over every cause and effect such as, the angle and degree to how the domino would fall before it made contact with the next domino, the amount of impact every domino would succeed from the one to another, the amount of noise decibel every piece would cause to reverb through the space in the room; not because God pushed the domino and manipulated the contingencies as they unfolded before Him, but instead because before God pushed the domino He planned and decreed that every piece will fall according to His will, and so when God pushes that first domino every piece falls according to His plan because God is the absolute highest causality as a result of His omnipotence.

God does not fail in His plans, and whatever He sets out to do He accomplishes it with maximal efficiency. When God sent His son to achieve the Fathers will He did not do it with the hopes that Christ would pass Satan’s temptations in the wilderness. God did not hope that the Jews would deny the Messiah and if they did not then God would come up with some other plan; that is not the God of the bible, and that is not omnipotence. God omnipotent; plans, decrees, and He executes as a cause of an absolute effect.

Genesis 18:4 is anything too hard for Jehovah? At the time appointed I will return again, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. God decreed in this verse that Sarah would have a son. So did God merely hope that Sarah would have a son, and if she did not then God would have to implement plan b? No! God planned, God decreed, and it was so because that is how God pre-ordained it.

Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?

Matthew 3:8,9 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance; and do not think to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

John the Baptist knew how boastful the Jews were about being descendants of Abraham and thinking their salvation was merited by obedience to the law and lineage; as a result they believed they did not need to repent and be baptized. John said to them do not even think of using the excuse of lineage to Abraham as your father because God does not necessitate your submission as children; God’s omnipotent power can raise children out of these stones; which was reflective of Jewish language. In Genesis 38:8 And Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to your brother. The raising up of new seed or children to Abraham meant that the time was at hand when the Gospel of the Kingdom who is Christ would soon go out to the gentiles, who would accept the Gospel of Christ instead of the Jews, and the gentiles would be the true seed of Abraham as its written in Galatians 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. Students of God; you and I are the stones spoken of by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:9, who God raised as Abrahams descendants because the Jews rejected Him! Not only now are you and I descendents of Abraham, but also descendents of grace.

The omnipotence of Chris is revealed in:

Matthew 26:53 Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?

Even Jesus Christ in the flesh had the ability of reaching into His divine omnipotence. When they came for Him Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of one of the high priest’s servants. Jesus said put away your sword or you may die by the sword. It was by God’s grace that Peter was not killed after He struck that man. God does not need man and His primitive carnal weapons to fight His battles. God is omnipotent and takes vengeance into His own hands, and His vengeance was revealed as He destroyed the temple of the Jews, and as the Jews chose to live by the sword; many Jewish subjects died by the Roman sword. Christ said if I just ask it of my Father He would send 12 legions of Angels to destroy my enemies. John Gill claims that a legion in the Roman Army ranked up to at least 6,000 Soldiers; giving us the illustration of 12 legions of Angels being an innumerable number. Remember the awesome power God can distribute with just one Angel? 2Kings 19:35 And it happened that night, the Angel of Jehovah went out and struck a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And they arose early in the morning, and behold, they were all dead bodies. That is God’s omnipotence.

Let us consider how omnipotent God is in our salvation:

Isaiah 43:11-13 reads; I, I am Jehovah; and there is none to save besides Me (the King James Version reads “besides me there is no Savior.) 12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shown, when there was no strange god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says Jehovah, that I am God. 13 Yea, before the day was, I am He; and no one delivers out of My hand; I will work, and who will reverse it?

God Jehovah in this passage is equivalent to John 14:4 where Christ said that He is the only way to the Father. In this passage Jehovah said there is no salvation apart from God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In verse 12 Jehovah said “I have declared, and have saved,” a declaration from God is a sovereign decree unto the salvation that we were brought to. God had shown His people the omnipotent power of God in salvation through the law and the prophets of the Old Testament, and deliverance from Egypt with God’s almighty arm. Today God continues to prove to us His omnipotence with His mighty arm of salvation, which is none other than Jesus Christ our Lord. Just as God delivered His people from Egypt, so does God deliver us from the wages of sin, which is death. That there was no strange God among you means that they were saved by God alone without the aid of false idols. And for us the New Testament believers; it means that salvation was a monergistic work accomplished by God’s grace, faith, and Christ alone without the aid mans effort.

The Omnipotence of God is revealed in His names:

Some titles of biblical doctrines are not found in the bible such as; the trinity, and omniscience. Nevertheless, it does not negate that the implications of those doctrines are revealed throughout the bible. From old to New Testament those two doctrines are unmistakably apparent. With some similarity the study of God’s omnipotence reveals that the noun omnipotence is not in the bible, but the adjective omnipotent is written in:

Revelation 19:6 “And I heard as the sound of a great multitude, and as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of strong thunders, saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns!”

In this verse we see God being referenced as omnipotent, which means to have unlimited power. Without going far from the principle subject of this article; there is another indication that needs to be shown, that is the word “Lord” which is the Greek word Kurios, which means; master, sir, and supreme in authority; which can be applied to the Father or the Son. However; the translators wrote the word Lord with one capital “L” as an indicator to us, that the deity in context is Jesus Christ and not the Father. In other verses in the New Testament such as Matthew 1:22 the word Lord has all capital letters, which indicates that the deity in that context is God the Father. In the Old Testament we have the Hebrew words Adonay and Y’hovee, which are names and titles of God. Y’hovee is the Hebrew national name for God, while Adonay meaning master or ruler of subjects is a title given to God; but in addition; Easton’s Bible Dictionary proposes that the title was traditional in Jewish homes as wives would refer to their husbands as their lord. However; in the Old Testament whenever the word Lord and God are written in all capital letters, it is an indication from the translators to let us know it is in reference to God the Father alone. The point is that in Revelations 19:6 the lower case L in the word Lord is in reference to Christ alone, and is referenced as omnipotent God; revealing to us that Jesus Christ is God. Our God Jesus Christ, who is a member of the Holy Triune Deity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; is omnipotent with no limit to power.

Another name found throughout the entire Old Testament that conveys to us the omnipotence of God is the word Almighty, which is translated from El Shaddai. It is written 48 times in the Old Testament, and 9 times in the New Testament. In the Old Testament; Almighty is predominantly in reference to Jehovah God, while in the New Testament it is in reference to Jesus Christ, such as in:

Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Again the Father and Son are sharing names which convey attributes applicable only to God, infers to us that Christ and God are the same being as God.

Dr. Geerhardus Vos; an American Princeton Theologian and also known as the father of Reformed Biblical Theology  writes that, El Shaddai “designates the divine power as standing in the service of His covenant-relation . . . transcending Nature and overpowering it in the interests of redemption.”  

Genesis 28:3 And may God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, so that you may be a multitude of peoples.

Genesis 35:11 And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be from you, and kings shall come out of your loins.

The very introduction of God Himself as God Almighty ought to raise a higher praise than when people lift their voices in vain for their favorite ball players in the vanity of a sports game. When one comes to the spiritual acknowledgment of the awesome power of God whom they serve; all these carnal games become irrelevant in comparison to fulfilling the will of God in one’s life. May God give us His power to avoid vain distraction for the purpose of study and fulfilling His commission.

These verses in Genesis if fallen into the hands of the prosperity preachers may tell people that these verses indicate that God wants them to be prosperous, full of health and wealthy; but that is not the context of these passages. God Almighty, El Shaddi is establishing His covenant with Jacob as He did with Abraham and Isaac. God changes Jacobs name to Israel; being fruitful and multiplying is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, that through his loins a nation would be developed, and from this nation would be raised tribes like the size of nations, and would be fruitful in the sense of giving birth to Kings such as David, Solomon, and finally Jesus Christ the King of Kings and savior of the world. God alone by His awesome ultimate unlimited power fulfills prophecy of the enmity between the world and the spirit, Satan and Christ, which began in the Garden of Eden; when He told the serpent “He will bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.” God’s omnipotence is manifested through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; King David and King Solomon, to the incarnation of the Son, His resurrection, and ascension for those whom Christ came to redeem, and the effectual calling of those whom God draws to Christ. God alone did all this by His mighty power for the sake of His glory and redemption of His people; who are today the Israel of God. We today are the fruits of God’s mighty promise to Abraham millenniums ago. It was commanded in:

Exodus 19:6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the sons of Israel.

This commandment still abides with us today, as believers of Christ are supposed to be a kingdom of priests and holy. In the New Testament or the New Covenant; Israel is now known as Israel of the flesh, and Israel of God. Those who are of the nation of Israel and do not follow Christ are Israel of the flesh. We who believe in Christ as God are the Israel of God.

Romans 9:6 Not however that the Word of God has failed, for not all those of Israel are Israel

1Corinthians 10:18 Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifices also partakers of the altar?

Galatians 6:16 reads; And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.

God’s stretched out arm and almighty hand has delivered us from death and eternal torment. Do not live your life lukewarm and in idle condition in service to God Almighty. Recognize the omnipotence of God in your life and worry not about the issues and struggles of life. Please remember the words of Christ Almighty and omnipotent:

Luk 12:6,7 Are not five sparrows sold for two assaria? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear, you are of more value than many sparrows.

Luke 12:25 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?

Circumstances will come and go; stand firm on the foundation of Christ the Rock. Believe that God is Almighty and able to provide everything necessary to achieve His will through you just as He did for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to bring forth the nation which gave birth to the savior of the world, Christ Almighty.

Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil.

Mark chapter one verse twelve says that immediately after His baptism the Spirit drove Jesus Christ into the wilderness. The Spirit moved Christ with a deep impulse for the purpose of being tempted by His adversary the Devil. Although the purpose of Christ being led to the wilderness was for the purpose Christ being tempted by His adversary; it is important to realize that, this temptation was not provided by God because God tempts no one with sin. Neither was this the last time Christ was tempted by Satan. Luke 4:13 reads; “And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.”

Jesus Christ full of the Holy Ghost without measure all the days of His life; had now received at His baptism and anointing of the Holy Ghost with a public declaration from the Father in Heaven. The Holy Spirit came upon Him making Him ready to fulfill all righteousness. Making Him ready for His public ministry, which involved glorious miracles; healing, raising people from the dead, giving like powers to His disciples, raising Himself from the dead and appearing to His Apostles, and primarily defeating death and sin. Nevertheless, one of the greatest gifts from His public ministry was the preaching of the Gospel. Remember in Luke 4:17 Christ was in Nazareth; He went to a synagogue on a Sabbath day, He stood and read from the book of Isaiah regarding a narrative of Him-self which reads:

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is on Me; because Jehovah has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

And so it is my conviction; and ill say again and again; that the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift to preach the Gospel of Christ, so that we can follow the example and passion of Christ to release men from their captivity of death. If we resurrect people with the power of the Holy Spirit, then it is done not by our hands as Christ and the Apostles did, but men’s dead spirits are resurrected to a new life in Christ, as we preach the Gospel that the Holy Spirit uses as His means to resurrect the sinner who is spiritually dead and cannot live for Christ; until the glorious working of the Holy Spirit performing a miracle in the spirit of man; making him a new creation.

2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.

Prior to the public works of Christ; Christ is led by the Spirit to the wilderness to be tested as Adam was tested in the Garden of Eden. We see how Christ becomes a type of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam failed as our initial representative but Christ became our new and victorious representative. We see the temptation of Christ manifesting Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” The victory of Christ’s temptation was the inception of the serpent’s head being bruised. We see the constant spiritual warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, and for those of us who are in Christ now; we have a mutual enemy, but since the enemy of God has been defeated in Jesus Christ; he is no longer able to deceive us away from the Gospel of Christ, for those who are in Christ. So it is important to remember that the more direct enemy we Christians face is our own flesh. We have no valid reason to pass the blame of our falling into sin to God not even to Satan himself.

James 1:13,14 Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.

God is Holy and cannot be tempted to any evil. Evil does not proceed from the Father and does not tempt any man with evil. God tempts us as he did Abraham, the Israelites, and Job; in order to try their faith, to grow in spiritual maturity, to humble us, or so that sin and our own corruption may be revealed to us, but our Holy God never tempts any man with the intention of man falling in to sin, man does that all by himself!

James 1:14 But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them.

This word lust is an interesting word. It is epithumia; in the Greek it means to have a longing desire for something which is forbidden. Easton’s Bible Dictionary says; “Lust, the origin of sin, (it) has its place in the heart, not of necessity, but because it is the centre of all moral forces; and impulses, and of spiritual activity.”  In other words lust may be described as an innate human faculty within our own very nature. When there is a sinful temptation in the world; it automatically excites our faculty of lust, and are drawn to what is forbidden by God as naturally as a fish is drawn to the bait on a hook. When we sin it is not because we were tempted by an outside identity, but directly by our own self; we cannot even pass the blame to angels, demons, or Satan.

Jud 8-10 Likewise, indeed, also these dreaming ones even defile flesh, and despise ruler ship, and speak evil of glories. 9 But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the Devil, he argued about the body of Moses, he dared not bring a judgment of blasphemy, but said, Let the Lord rebuke you! 10 But what things they do not know, they speak evil of. And what things they understand naturally, like the animals without reason, they are corrupted by these.

In context of verse 8 the dreaming ones are the Jewish witchdoctors who falsely interpreted dreams. It is also in reference of false teachers in the times of the Apostles, which as it is written defile the flesh meaning that they give themselves to their corrupt desires without resistance. In essence we all as sinners effectively can be applied to this text. We do defile the flesh as we sin, but perhaps not to the extreme of those spoken of in this verse by Jude. Additionally it is written that they despise ruler ship and glories; also known as dignitaries, which may be applied to governments, civil magistrates, and any type of authority overall. The disrespect of authority in verse 8 is the vital principal to understand verse 9.

Michael, the archangel was contending with the Devil regarding the body of Moses. In the argument between them; Michael did not dare to rail any form of disrespect to the Devil but instead said, “Let the Lord rebuke you!” These are two powerful angels with great authority. Even Satan can be ascribed as a form of dignitary; a wicked and evil ruler yes, but nevertheless him and his fallen angels are of a powerful authority that we have no comprehension of, which catapults us into verse 10; “But what things they do not know, they speak evil of. And what things they understand naturally, like the animals without reason, they are corrupted by these.” This applies to any form of verbal disrespect to natural worldly authorities as well as spiritual authorities. Since we are dealing with the subject of temptation and what we may attribute it to. It is widely recognized in modern evangelical churches that some believers attempt to personally rebuke the Devil in the name of Jesus, or even accuse him and his fallen angels with disrespecting terms as they pray. This is done because of bad theology, biblical ignorance, spiritual immaturity, and a finite arrogant mind thinking they can exalt themselves above an authority they know nothing of. If this is you then repent; it is not honorable to God, and it is disobedient to the scriptures. God’s way of humbling us in verse 10 is to refer to us as brute beasts that corrupt ourselves and only understand the natural things of this carnal world. We as natural men have no business raising accusations against any spiritual dignitaries; so leave alone blaming them for our temptations and sins, that is something we need to own for ourselves, and that requires spiritual maturity and discipline. The only temptation from Satan we need to concern ourselves with; is the temptation between Satan and Christ, that is all and that is it.

Isaiah 6:1-7 In the year that King Uzziah died I then saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphs; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of Hosts; the whole earth full of His glory. 4 And the doorposts moved at the voice of the one who cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said, Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of Hosts. 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, snatched with tongs from the altar. 7 And he laid it on my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.

The prophet Isaiah starts by giving us a timeline of when he was given this vision from God; “in the year that King Uzziah died.” King Uzziah was a strong king and did right in the sight of the Lord until his last year. He reigned for 52 years and His last year God stuck him with leprosy for charging into the temple to offer incense, which was a provision assigned only to God’s priest, and forbidden to anyone else. King Uzziah had a great reputation and his method of death was well known throughout Israel, that when Isaiah wrote; “when King Uzziah died” all who read new exactly what timeline was being referenced. The significance about the timeline is that, according to Saint Jerome; who was a 4^th century theologian, historian, and the author of the Latin Vulgate, which was his translation from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts into the Latin language; claims that in the same year King Uzzia died, Romulus was born, who became one of the founders of Rome. Rome became the fifth kingdom God used as His judgment over Israel, which postdated Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and Greece. Everything thing that was glorious about Israel died with King Uzziah; and Rome was used as God’s means to destroy the second temple in AD 70, which marked the final abolishment of ceremonial works, and manifested the prophecy of Christ in Matthew 24; ushering in the new covenant of salvation by grace instead of old covenantal justification through ceremonial rituals.

In the vision of Isaiah in Chapter 6:1 he said, “I then saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.” Isaiah saw Jesus Christ sitting on His throne. We can safely deduce from scripture that this was Christ and not God the Father who Isaiah saw, because Exodus 33:20 reads as God was speaking to Moses; “You cannot see My face. For there no man can see Me and live.” The eyes of man are to corrupt to stand the sight of God’s Holy Glory, that if the Holiness of God were to just appear to us for just the smallest fraction of a second; we would die. Sin cannot survive wherever perfect holiness abounds, and we are that sin that cannot abound in the presence of God’s Holiness.

Isaiah saw the train of Christ as He sat on His temple. The Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge defines the Lord’s train as the bottom portion of His robe or garment. In addition; John Gill claims that, His train is perhaps symbolizing all of Christ’s gifts and graces upon His temple, which is the church all over the world. God said in Isaiah 66:1 that; “Heaven is My throne, and earth My footstool.” It is my personal belief that the expression from Isaiah may have also been allegoric for the presence of Christ throughout the entire temple, which may also be an extension throughout the entire globe where the presence of God’s Glory may abound, and wherever the Gospel is preached.

Verse 2: Above it stood the Seraph. Or the Seraphim as the King James words it. The Hebrew word is Saraph, which means fiery or burning, perhaps denoting that they are full of brilliance and illumination from being in the presence of God’s glory.

Psalms 104:4 reads; “He makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire.”

There is great mystery regarding the nature of these types of angels. RC Sproul said in his six part Holiness series, that when God creates something; He creates creatures that are adaptive to its sounding nature. In the case of these Seraphs; they are in close proximity of Christ’s Holiness while they worship and serve God at His will. They have six wings with two they fly and are always ready to take flight at the command of God. With two they covered their eyes. Many theologians believe that they have their eyes covered because of the superlative Glory and Holiness of God. Others believe they cover their eyes because of their modesty and humility before God; I do not believe they cover their eyes because they may be destroyed, such as us human creatures would be destroyed because wickedness abounds in our very being, but not angels. Christ said in;

Matthew 18:10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I say to you that in Heaven their angels always behold the face of My Father in Heaven.”

The interpretation of their humility before God the Father makes great sense, not only are they recognizing themselves as created beings from God’s glorious creativity, and that even as angels they recognize they are not worthy to look upon such Holiness; but it ought to make us sinners realize that if the holy angels are in Heaven in the nearness of God’s glory and cover their faces, then what is your position now? How do you come before the majesty of God when you pray to Him, and when you worship Him? Are you on your feet before the throne of God?

Psalm 99:5 reads; “Praise Jehovah our God, and worship at His footstool; He is holy.

Do you think that when one comes to God and worship at His footstool; it ought to be done in proper submission while standing up? No! It is done humbly as we fall prostrate to the floor at His feet. Look at the reaction of Abraham and Moses when they spoke to God.

In Genesis 17:1 it reads; “And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Jehovah appeared to Abram and said to him, I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect.”

Look at the supreme authority! “I am the Almighty God!” And look at what is demanded; for us to walk before Him and be perfect. Even if we could be perfect, and not have one sin within our anatomy; we would still not be worthy of His Holy presence. But we praise God for the Son He provided for our justification; that we are declared perfect and righteous based on the work of someone else, who is Jesus Christ. Therefore now it resonates within our minds; the writings of the holy epistles, that the just shall live by faith. In verse three of Geneses 3; it follows that Abraham fell on his face.

Consider now Moses in;

Exodus 3:6 And He said; I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

Are you afraid of God? If not then why not; is it because you have always been told that God is love and love is God and all is love? All that is true, but furthermore God is Holy; His love is a quality of His Holiness. Holiness is a superior attribute of God. Love Him yes because He first loved us and saved us, but respect and fear Him because He has the power to cast one’s body and soul to eternal torment, which is something His Holiness demands from Him. No one deserves to look at the presence of God’s Holy Majesty, but thank Him; thank Him for His mercy on us.

In Exodus 33; there is a beautiful dialogue between God and Moses. Read the entire chapter and I dare you not to sense the Holiness of God in these passages. God tells Moses to take his people to the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; a land flowing with milk and honey. God said He will send an angel with them to substitute the presence of God walking with them. God said they are a stiff necked people and if He walked in the midst of them, He would kill them. Moses pleaded with Jehovah; earnestly asking Him to go with him and His people, so that all nations can see that we are separated from the rest of the nations. He tells God that He has not told Moses who it is He will send with His people in God’s place. He reminds God that God has told Moses He knew Moses by name and found grace in His sight. Moses said if this is true then be with them in their travels, so that he may know God and His ways; and if not then leave them there where they are. And God granted Moses his request, and said he had found grace in His sight and that He knew Moses by name.

It follows that Moses requested one more thing from God; in verse 18 Moses said, “I beseech You, let me see Your glory.” God said in verses 19-23; “I will make My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before you . . . You cannot see My face. For there no man can see Me and live . . . Behold! There is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock. And it will be, while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. And I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back parts. But My face shall not be seen.

God is incredibly gracious to Moses. God was under no obligation to grant Moses his request. Knowing that for Moses to see His face with the naked eye would result in the death of Moses. God in all His Wisdom and Grace calculated a way to grant some of Moses’ request. God said “I will make my goodness pass before you,” John Calvin wrote that; “The passing by signifies a vision of brief duration,” (Calvin). In this vision the goodness of God is all that consists of His glory; from His attributes, His Holiness, His sovereign works, to the glory of God which is Jesus Christ. John Gill writes that the goodness of God is Christ Himself. We can only speculate what God showed Moses as He passed by Him, but it is not farfetched to believe that God showed Him the work of God and Christ, as the redeemer of man passing by Moses; just as God passes over the sins of man as He forgives the iniquity of those who believe in Christ.

Furthermore; God said to Moses that as He passed by him, God would proclaim His name Jehovah before him. In verse 17 of this same chapter; God said to Moses He knew Him by name, which is a phrase from God showing the highest esteem for an individual. Those who have studied the attribute of God’s foreknowledge may remember and understand that clearly. Moses asked God in verse 13; “Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found grace in Your sight, make me see now Your ways, that I may know You.” For God to tell Moses not only will I show you my glory, but I will declare my name as I pass by you; is expressing to Moses that, not only do I know you by name; but now you also Moses, will know me by name.

God told Moses to go and stand in the cleft in a rock. A cleft is an indention or opening in the mountain like a small cave. As God passed by Moses; He covered him with His hand so that he would not look upon God’s face as He passed by, otherwise it would have meant instant death for Moses. After passing by Moses and proclaiming His name; He removed His hand so that Moses can receive a glimpse of God’s backside. At this point Moses had now seen more of God than anyone to date. From the miraculous plagues in Egypt, the liberation of God’s people, the splitting of the Red sea, the feeding of God’s people with heavenly manna, and water from the rock which he would strike so that water would flow out for his people to drink. Bible scholars agree that this cleft where God told Moses to stand was an indention in Horeb where Moses would strike for water.

We know in the Old Testament Psalm 18:2 God is referred to as the Rock. We also know in the New Testament 1Corinthians 10:4 Christ is referred to as the Rock. The Christology in this is that the cleft; the rock who God told Moses to stand on as God passed by was Jesus Christ, who we stand on for our salvation from the wrath of God as He passes by. Even God in His mercy just as He covered Moses with His hand; God covers those whom He chose with His awesome gracious hand, so that we may not be consumed by His fire but instead; just as God removed His hand from Moses, He allowed Moses to see the Holy glorious goodness of His backside, and for us who believe in Christ at one point we were not yet ready to see the revelation of Christ, but God when He so willed; decided to remove His hand from us so that we may see the glory of His backside, which is Jesus Christ the Rock we stand on for our salvation!

Matthew 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan, to John, to be baptized by him. 14 but John restrained Him, saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? 15 and answering Jesus said to him, allow it now, for it is becoming to us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed Him.

At this point the cousin of Christ has been passionately preparing the way for the coming of the Lord by preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God; calling all men to repentance of their sins and be baptized as a public confession of faith with boldness and a type of authority which can only be given by the grace of God to do His mighty works. Repentance of sins is still the fundamental message we need to bring to all men as we witness for Christ; if there is going to be hope for salvation. Preaching a gospel without repentance is no gospel at all; and never assume that repenting from a sin means that you will never commit that same sin again. In fact never say as Peter said to Christ in Matthew 26:33 that all these men may be offended of thee, but not Peter. In other words Peter was claiming that he would never be ashamed of Christ in public, yet he denied Jesus Christ as a consequence of shame and perhaps fear. How many times have we been ashamed of Christ in public? How many times have we turned down our Christian music in front of unbelievers? How many times have we lowered your voice in front of people when speaking about Christ in public? The true theological perspective of Romans 10:9,10 confession; is warranted with all its validity when confessed out in public where there may be hostility toward the Gospel of Christ. Anybody can be moved by motivating words and soft music to profess Christ in the church, but if you are ashamed of Christ in public; then you may want to test yourself to see if you have truly been born again from the Spirit of God. So never say I will never sin a sin; you do not know what God’s sovereign will has planned for your life. Instead do as James instructs us in

James 4:13-15; Come now, those saying, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and spend a year there, and we will trade and will make a profit,14 who do not know of the morrow. For what is your life? For it is a vapor, which appears for a little time, and then disappears. 15 Instead of you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.

If the Lord wills I will not commit this sin, and pray and pray that God gives you the Grace not to sin such a sin.

1John 1:8 reads; If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

What is truth? Christ is truth and the source of truth. If you claim you have no sin, or in other words think that your sins are not that bad, or that God doesn’t take some of your transgression seriously, then to those they have not yet known true repentance, they deceive themselves; the truth is not in them and they yet do not know Christ. True repentance is an acknowledgement that the Gospel of Christ is true, and with that comes the acknowledgement that we are born in sin, and we therefore continually disobey God and are in need of salvation from Christ lest we go to hell. Repentance comes with the remorse, regret, and desires to want to obey God as we love and follow Jesus Christ; with the understanding that Christ obeyed God’s commandments for our sake and on the cross became what God hates most; “sin” because God took the sins of the world and imputed them on His Son.

2Corinthians 5:21 says; For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Therefore, we are forgiven because Christ defeated your sin for you if you believe in Christ. Repentance does not mean that you no longer sin; neither does it mean that you have the ability not to sin; but that you live everyday of your life with the attempt to repent daily, as we die to our sins daily, because we believe in the Gospel of Christ.

In verse 13 and 14; Jesus comes to John the Baptist to be baptized. An important quality, I believe should be realized about John the Baptist; is his humility. Humility; as an adjective is to be humble, meaning to be modest and recognize that as a sinner you are actually lower than what your pride makes you think you are. Humility is the opposite of pride and arrogance.

Proverbs 18:12 reads; Before shattering, the heart of man is proud, and before honor is humility

1Peter 5:5 Likewise, younger ones, be subject to older ones, and all being subject to one another. Put on humility. For God resists proud ones, but He gives grace to the humble.

John had great reason to be arrogant, yet he developed an incredible reputation as a man of God. God gave to John the Baptist what no other man in scripture is recorded to have since they were in their mother’s womb; the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:15 reads; For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall neither drink wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

John the Baptist was baptized of the Holy Spirit since he was a baby. God predestinated him as a model of sanctification. Listen to how Jesus spoke of him in

Matthew 11:9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say to you, and one more excellent than a prophet.

Referring to John as a prophet was a noble title and many believed that he was, but according to Christ the title of prophet did not express enough insight to what he truly was. Christ continues in verse 11 and says, “Truly I say to you, among those who have been born of women there has not risen a greater one than John the Baptist.” English Puritan and expositor of the bible; Matthew Henry in his commentary to this verse writes:

“Christ knew how to value persons according to the degrees of their worth, and he prefers John before all that went before him, before all that were born of women by ordinary generation. Of all that God had raised up and called to any service in his church, John is the most eminent, (standing above other in quality or position) even beyond Moses himself; for he began to preach the gospel doctrine of remission of sins to those who are truly penitent; (those who truly seek repentance) and he had more signal revelations from heaven than any of them had; for he saw heaven opened, and the Holy Ghost descend. He also had great success in his ministry; almost the whole nation flocked to him: none rose on so great a design, or came on so noble an errand, as John did, or had such claims to a welcome reception. Many had been born of women that made a great figure in the world, but Christ prefers John before them. Note, Greatness is not to be measured by appearances and outward splendour, but they are the greatest men who are the greatest saints, and the greatest blessings, who are, as John was, great in the sight of the Lord,” (Henry).

I especially enjoy what Christ said in verses 7 and 8, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken with the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, they who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.

Did you expect to find a man in the wilderness speaking inconsistently with no stability, as a reed is unstable as the wind blows? No! John the Baptist was a man whose house was built on a solid foundation of Christ which could not be shaken. The man was a vessel formed by God as the Potter to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. Showing no fear or tameness in front of opposition by calling men to repentance of their transgressions and be baptized. John; being filled immensely with the Holy Spirit since his birth; he lived a sanctified life for the purpose of God, casting all vain cares to the waste side he did not concern himself with his own garments. He had 20/20 vision for the Lord and that was all. He was an exalted man by name and reputation yet still he was incredibly humble. When Jesus Christ came to him to be baptized John saw himself unworthy to baptize the Son of God. He said no; I need to be baptized of you. Why? Why would John request this? John the Baptist said in

Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water to repentance. But He who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

John the Baptist desired a baptism from Christ because what he desired was not a baptism of water, but of the Holy Spirit; even though he already had a great measure of it. This is because; the more Holy Spirit you have, the more and more you recognize how much of a sinner you are, and realize you need more and more Spirit of God.

Proverbs 8:13 reads; The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil; I hate pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the wicked mouth.

John the Baptist in His humility denies being baptized of Jesus Christ, so that John may be baptized of Christ with a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ replies with “allow it now, or as the King James renders it, “suffer it to be so now” which is more close to the language of the Old Testament. Notice in the scripture that Christ did not rebuke John for not wanting to Baptist Christ. Christ knowing the hearts of all men can see that John was sincerely humble at his request. Yet Christ commanded that John baptize Christ and John obeyed. Jesus could have easily baptized John after the baptism of Christ if He so chose too, but Christ knew that the time for the baptism of the Holy Spirit was not yet at hand. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is not spoken of until Acts 1 verses four through eight; where Jesus explains to His Apostles to wait for the promise of the Father, that in just days from then they would receive power from the Holy Ghost after the Apostles are baptized of the Spirit. This power of the Holy Spirit that was given to them was for one purpose and one purpose only; that purpose remains to this very day, and the purpose of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment is to take the Gospel of Christ throughout all the nations baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the power that we all ought to pray for from the Spirit of God every day; that we may preach and teach the Gospel of Christ effectively where ever we go so that God may draw men to salvation, and that is the gift that all who want to preach the Gospel ought to pray for. I may pray that the Holy Spirit may empower me in other ways as well, but to me the other gifts are secondary in comparison to preaching the Gospel of Christ. If there was only one gift to have; then let it be the ability to preach the Gospel unadulterated and teaching sound doctrine, if the Lord so wills.

Now; Christ said, “allow it now, for it is becoming to us to fulfill all righteousness.” What is meant by righteousness? Righteousness coincides with justification, which in Easton’s Bible Dictionary is defined as; “the judicial act of God, by which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Christ, and accounts, accepts, and treats them as righteous in the eye of the law, i.e., as conformed to all its demands,” (Easton).

Leviticus 18:4,5 You shall do My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them. I am Jehovah your God. 5 and you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Jehovah.

Psalms 9:8 and he shall judge the world in righteousness; he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

These verses lay out the standard of God in order to be justified; meaning to be legally pardoned of sin and declared righteous. This is an impossible task because God’s righteous standard for justification is for man to keep every ordinance, statute, and commandment or else suffer the wages of sin in hell. Impossible; no man in history from the first man Adam to our day has fulfilled God’s perfect law except one; the second Adam Jesus Christ. Our first Adam failed as our representative and through his disobedience came sin and death. Yet through our second Adam sin and death was defeated, and the righteousness of God was fulfilled.

When Jesus Christ said to John; to allow His baptism to fulfill all righteousness, not only did he mean to be baptized as an example for everyone to follow, though it is true. Not only to show respect to John the Baptist, though it is true. Not only to begin His ministry and fulfill the will of God, to fulfill the shadow of the Old Testament sacrifice, which the Jews practiced through their ceremonial rituals given to them by God, in order to express their faith in the coming Messiah, not only to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies of the anticipated Messiah, but the most profound concept about Christ’s proposition of fulfilling God’s righteousness is that He came to be the only one in all of existence able to obey God’s commandments and become the manifested righteousness of God.

We know now that in order to be justified in the sight of God; we have to obey all of God’s commandments without flaw. If we are not capable, then God would have to pardon us and legally declare us righteous, which is impossible because the Holiness of God demands that He condemns sin. Therefore, in order for the remission of sin to be effective, someone else needs to make atonement for us, in other words; reconcile us with God. Now God demands two things; the condemnation of sin, and perfect obedience to the law, and so therefore Jesus Christ is sent by God to fulfill all righteousness by fully obeying all of God’s law; while simultaneously being the victim of God’s wrath by being placed on the cross and becoming sin; the thing which God hates most, and so the justice of God was satisfied. This was done for you and I who believe in Christ.

Romans 4:6-8 Even as David also says of the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works, 7 saying, “Blessed are those whose lawlessness are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man to whom the Lord will in no way impute sin.”

In these passages we see the word impute, which means to attribute or credit too. To use it as an adjective; imputed in a sentence which correlates with tonight’s doctrine is, all men are guilty because Adam’s sin was imputed to all men. In the same sense; all who believe in Christ are now righteous because the righteous work of His obedience to God was imputed on all who believe in Christ through faith. Another proper one is; the sins of all who believe in Christ were imputed on Jesus Christ who then became sin for us on the cross. And so the passage in Romans 4:6 reads; “blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works,” Meaning blessed is whoever God credits as righteous without his obedience to the law. “Blessed are those whose lawlessness are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man to whom the Lord will in no way impute sin.”

Romans 10:3,4 For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes.

Who are they in verse three? They are the Jews; the Pharisees who were ignorant of the righteousness of God because they failed to recognize the Messiah, and the work of atonement He came to do. The Pharisees establish their own righteousness means that, since they do not believe in Christ; they fail to recognize that the laws which the Pharisees are trying to labor rigorously in keeping, was already fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and in order for them to be declared righteous in the sight of God; all they need to do is repent and believe. Since they do not; then they seek to establish their own righteousness, which will lead them straight to hell, and the same will be for all who attempt to gain salvation in false religion through their own works of false righteousness just as the Pharisees.

2Corinthians 5:21 For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Matthew 5:20 For I say to you that unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

The Pharisees were the most learned scholars of the Old Testament. They knew the laws of God by memory and they counted their obedience to that law as righteous, which was difficult to meet for the common man. So when the unregenerate man heard this proposal from Christ; they thought it impossible. But for us who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God; we now know that our righteousness does exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees because we believe in Christ and the righteousness of Christ has been imputed on us, and we are now the righteousness of God and will enter heaven, while the righteousness of the Pharisees is in vain because they still seek salvation by the works of the law, which is no righteousness at all, and will not enter heaven.

Since the day our Lord Jesus Christ partook of His baptism; He was set forth by the Spirit of God to achieve the impossible. Christ became the savior of the world by His obedience to the will of the Father. Being the Son of God the Father declared at His baptism that He was well pleased in the Son, because finally someone was about to fulfill the righteousness of God. Thanks to Christ we have been set free from the law, which demanded from us perfect obedience resulting in the consequence of disobedience condemning us to hell. Now through the atonement of Christ we may walk serve God through the Spirit of God, and not be oppressed by primitive works unto salvation.

Romans 7:6 But now we having been set free from the Law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

No longer are we held in bondage of the law, which reveals to us our sin and condemns us under the justice of God; but now we are dead to the law, not in the sense that sin is dead, neither that we no longer sin, but we no longer have to look to the law to appease the righteousness of God; we never have we never could. We now serve God in the newness of spirit because we now look to Jesus Christ instead of the law. We no longer walk in the oldness of the letter, which is the Old Covenant, but we walk in the newness of spirit because we walk in the righteousness of God, which was imputed to us by Christ. We have been freed; freed in the sense that Jesus Christ has reconciled us to the living God. We were enemies of God but were made His servants by the work of Christ. We have been freed; freed in the sense that for all who believe in Christ are now free to love and obey Jesus Christ. To God and Christ give all the glory.

Isaiah 6:1-7 In the year that King Uzziah died I then saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphs; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of Hosts; the whole earth full of His glory. 4 And the doorposts moved at the voice of the one who cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said, Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of Hosts. 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, snatched with tongs from the altar. 7 And he laid it on my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.

King Uzziah reigned prosperously for 52 years before the Lord struck him with leprosy. He was a strong and competent ruler whose name was well known from Israel to Egypt. It is written in 2Chronicles 26:5, that King Uzziah reigned under the influence of the prophet Zechariah, and did right in the sight of the Lord. In that same chapter we learn that King Uzziah had become proud and arrogant because of his power, and sinned against God by taking unto himself the role of the Priest by burning incense on the Alter in the temple of the Lord. As the king entered the temple, where it was said that the holy presence of the Lord was; the priest ran in after the king forbidding him to enter, and in front of the priest, the Lord struck the king with leprosy.

Another similar scenario is found in 1Chronicles 13:7-10, where King David and many were traveling with the Ark playing music and worshiping God, when one of the ox’s stumbled; Uzza placed his hands on the Ark of the Covenant most probably to prevent it from falling, breaking one of God’s commandments written in Numbers 4:15 which reads, “And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.” When Uzza placed his hands on the Ark of the Covenant; scripture reads that God’s anger was kindled and Jehovah struck Uzza dead on sight for placing his hands on the Ark. The Ark of the Covenant was a wooden and golden chest which contained the Ten Commandments. There is so much to teach regarding the Ark, but that could require an entire systematic lecture. Two things that are immanent about the Ark are that, it was the physical manifestation of God’s presence on earth, which typifies our Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us; the physical manifestation of God. Also the Ark represented the real Holy presence of God. Numbers 4:20 says that if anyone looked at it while it was covered; they would die immediately by the hand of God. What must be understood about the Holiness of God is that, His holiness is so holy, powerful, pure, so sanctified, and separated from evil and sin, that any sin within its presence will automatically be destroyed. The most dangerous proximity to a sinner is the Holy presence of God. The Ark of the Covenant represented God’s law, Jesus Christ and the holiness of God. It may have been more acceptable to God for the Ark to fall on the ground than for unclean, impure human hands to touch it; because sin cannot subsist in the presence of God’s holiness.

Remember in Exodus 3:4,5 God called Moses; Moses responds “here I am.” God said, “Do not come near here. Pull off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” The holiness of God transcends any area He is present. John Gill claims Moses was told to remove his sandals to prevent dirt and contaminants from entering the holy place, which God had sanctified with His presence. Mathew Henry writes that, it was to show humility and submission; although the true meaning is slightly ambiguous, I think it may be safe to conclude that, removing his sandals symbolizes that anyone who draws near to the Lord needs to approach His Holiness with humility, fear, and a repentant heart that recognizes the true wicked nature of man in the presence of Holiness. What is most significant about this passage is God telling Moses not to approach any closer. If Moses would have disobeyed and took another step; the Holiness of God may have consumed him.

Corruption cannot survive anywhere near the presence of God, because to be holy; the very biblical definition of holy, according to Dr. Barry Horner means, “separation from defilement,” (Horner). The verb to this would be to sanctify. In application to us, who believe in Christ; would mean that we have been sanctified by God according to the purity of His will; we have been set apart from defilement to the glory to God.

Regarding the attribute of God’s Holiness; 17^th century Puritan Thomas Watson writes, “Holiness is the most sparkling jewel of his crown; it is the name by which God is known. Holy and reverend is his name.’ He is ‘the holy One. Seraphims cry, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. His power makes him mighty, his holiness makes him glorious. God’s holiness consists in his perfect love of righteousness, and abhorrence of evil, and cannot look on iniquity,” (Watson).

Calvinist biblical scholar and theologian John Gill wrote, “Holiness is an essential attribute of God; it is his nature and essence; it is himself; he is holiness itself; “he swears by himself, because he can swear by no greater”; and he will not swear by any less, and yet he swears by his holiness,” (Gill).

Exodus 15:11 Who is like You, O Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

1Samual 2:2 There is none holy as Jehovah, for there is none beside You. Neither is there any rock like our God.

Isaiah 57:15 For so says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity; whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place.

Who is like our almighty God Jehovah? By gods is meant the mighty ones of heaven such as God’s most powerful angels, and the mightiest men on earth. No king, president, or military general together with the greatest intentions can match the Holiness of God. Though these mighty rulers may try to bring security and a false sense of righteousness for the people with their humanistic secular laws; nothing they achieve can provide what the Holiness of God’s attribute brings to His people, and that is our eternal salvation. We fearfully praise our God for the mighty wonders He has done and continue to do until the end of time as we know it. There is none like our God who condemns evil and rewards righteousness. We fearfully praise God for the incarnation of Christ who died and resurrected from the dead and will return to judge all the unrighteous works of men according to His holiness.

The Holiness of God is our moral standard

1John 1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

Psalm 19:8-10 The Precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart; the Commandments of Jehovah are pure, giving light to the eyes. 9 the fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether,10 more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Psalm 145:17 Jehovah is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works.

Romans 7:12 So indeed the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

1Peter 1:15,16 but according to the Holy One who has called you, you also become holy in all conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

The standard of God’s morality left to us is found in His message, which is the Gospel of Christ, which reveals to us that the light of God is found in none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom there is no trace of darkness, no trace of sin; which is what made His sacrifice on the cross valuable and worthy of taking all the sins of the world, that whosoever believes in His Holy name may be saved. With our heart we rejoice for those of us who believe in Christ, that our eyes have been illuminated by God to see Jesus Christ and understand His Holiness; by His Holy standard we recognize the degree of our wretchedness. We men are absolutely lost without the Holy moral compass of God. It is the eternal fear of Jehovah that is clean and endures forever since the ceremonial law has been done away with. The word of God is Holy and eternal, which cleanses our sins away with the blood of Christ. The judgments of Jehovah are true and righteous all together. Although the ceremonial law is fulfilled and abolished by Christ; the ordinances of God and Christ still stand and are to be obeyed. These moral laws are righteous and all individuals to include world governments ought to subject themselves to them; for God’s statutes are finer than gold and sweeter than the purest honey. Our God has commanded to all; be Holy for I am Holy. No other attribute of God has He commanded us to obey. God has not said; be omniscient for I am omniscient, be omnipresent for I am omnipresent, be omnipotent for I am omnipotent, No! God has said, be Holy for I am Holy.

The Holiness of God ought to compel all men to do nothing but give God praise for His Holiness.

Psalm 99:3 Let them praise Your great and fearful name; it is holy.

Psalm 103:1 Bless Jehovah, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Exodus 20:7 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.

May God have mercy on those who take God’s Holy name in vain!

The primacy of God’s attribute of Holiness is dominant throughout the bible. The words Holy, holiness, and its synonyms such as; sacred, sanctify, and sanctification are found in scripture more than love, or mercy. The word love is found in 281 versus of the King James Bible. The word Holy is found in 544 versus of the King James Bible. It is unfortunate that our modern evangelical churches have replaced God’s Holiness with love. They speak of God’s love as if it is the superior attribute over all. They consider themselves noble because they choose to only exalt the love of God to make the people feel good. These ministers; if they may even be called such a title are negligent with the word of God and will be judged. They neglect the declaration of God’s Holiness because it will obligate the preacher to reveal in their messages what the Holiness of God’s character exposes; His absolute hatred toward sin and the sinner, which His Holiness is obligated to condemn and punish. It presses the preacher to talk about the most offensive things such as man’s true biblical anthropology, which is of less value than the filthiest rag, and God would be just and Holy to dispose of all of them. The Holiness of God exposes the true contrast between man and His God. It reveals the true nature of mans corruption; deep in within man’s heart he is not good, as most say; instead he hates God and all He stands for.

2Chronicles 19:2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him. And he said to King Jehoshaphat, Should you help the ungodly and love those who hate Jehovah? And by this bring wrath on you from before Jehovah.

John 7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its works are evil.

John 15:23 He who hates Me hates My Father also.

James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

The unregenerate disposition of man’s nature is a grave position to be in. These verses here portray the true temperament of man’s heart toward God. Notice in John 7:7 Christ said that the world hates Him because He testifies of the world’s evil works. What do you think was significant about this? Jesus Christ condemned their evil works, and works that seemed righteous to the Pharisees according to selfish desires not done with a pure heart of true faith to God. Christ was Holy and He used the absolute standard of His Holiness to contrast and reveal to men their ungodliness. So it is the same today; that whatever we do in life do for the glory of God. Let us not do anything for any other intention but to only Glorify God, for anything less is wicked; and fall short of His holy standad.

Ephesians 2:16 and so that He might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity in Himself.

Glory and praise to God the Father for providing the body of Christ on the cross for the purpose of our reconciliation between man and God. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the enmity between those who believe in Christ and God has been put to death. Now for those of us who worship the Lord; love, and obey His commandments are no longer enemies of God, and can have peace on earth with our God and eternity in heaven. But for those who have not yet repented and turned to a life with Christ; they are still enemies of God, atonement has not yet been made for them, and if they die in their wicked state they will receive the full measure of God’s wrath. May the Lord use us to bring many to the kingdom of God.

Nahum 1:2 reads; God is jealous, and the LORD revenges; the LORD revenges, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies.

Habakkuk 1:13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon vexation. Why do You look upon those who deal deceitfully? Will you be silent when the wicked swallows one more righteous than he?

Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You only are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your righteousnesses were made known.

The word immutability with the prefix imm with mutability means unchangeable. God Himself is an unchangeable deity. A God who is forever active in the affairs of His creation and that is something that will never change. The doctrine of God’s immutability does not mean that God is not mobile; or that He restrains Himself from anything. God is not limited to movement and does not limit Himself, or keep Himself from the affairs of man, as the deist would teach. The deist thinker believes that God created and then removes himself from the matters of his created creatures. God’s immutability means that every aspect of His being, character, mind, attributes, and will, is never changing. God is the only being in existence which is unchangeable. God has determined since eternity to be involved in the affairs of His created creatures, and that determination will never change; it is immutable. Thank God He is an immutable ruler in the dealings of man. The world is full of constant change and we see how sometimes change in our world has an evil consequence. But we can trust in the one sovereign God who is unchangeable that everything that is currently being worked out will be to the glory of God, and that is His word; and His word will live forever, and that is unchangeable.

The being of God is immutable:

Malachi 3:6 For I am Jehovah, I change not. Because of this you sons of Jacob are not destroyed.

By the very declaration of God Himself; we can trust in Him. God does not change in being; in attributes, neither character, or mind. God is not a mutable man who tells you what you want to hear in order to get elected into favorable positions. God is not a mutable man who falls short of integrity and breaks His promises. God is the only God in existence and He is unchangeable. The being of God is not contingent or conditioned on anything outside of Himself. The decrees of God are immutable and everything He decrees has been decreed from eternity, and will come to pass because His decrees are unchangeable. His knowledge and foreknowledge is immutable. God can never grow wiser neither can God become absent minded. Our Lord our God Jehovah is supreme over all existence to include the wills of men; and though all men are fallible, weak, and mutable; nothing which we do, nor any angel in Heaven can cause God to rethink anything. God reigns over all throughout all eternity and has been the same yesterday, today, and will be the same tomorrow. The sovereign rule of God is immutable.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.

Even the Son, who is the physical manifestation of the Father in heaven, is immutable. Christ the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow implies that He has been unchangeable throughout all eternity. He is the very same essence as the Father and the Holy Spirit. Even in the flesh Jesus Christ was immutable in every respect. Furthermore; the Gospel of Jesus Christ has always been the same from the Old Testament, to the New Testament. In the old days the Jews professed their faith in Christ by sacrificing animals as a shadow of the coming Messiah. Those who believed in Jehovah, and the prophecy of the coming Messiah; believed with the same faith given to them by God, which is the same faith given to the New Testament believer who believes in the risen Lamb who was slain. The Gospel of Christ and method of salvation will always be absolutely dependable because the Gospel of Christ is immutable, it does not change.

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He.

2Samual 22:32 For who is God, except Jehovah? And who is a rock except our God?

In the Old Testament; God is proclaimed as the immutable rock because a rock is inelastic, it cannot be molded. All of God’s works are perfect and just. God is faithful to His people to never forsake us. He is an upright God who is never the author of evil in the affairs of men, and in all these things He is consistent and never changes. In the New Testament the triune deity and the immutability thereof is found in Christ as the Rock.

1Corinthians 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

1Peter 2:6 Therefore also it is contained in the Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner Stone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him shall never be ashamed.

1Corinthians 10:4 is in reference to Moses in Exodus 17:6 at the rock of Horeb. God commanded Moses to smite the rock so that water would pour out for the people to drink. The Old Testament Jews drank from the rock which was a type or shadow of Christ who is known as the Rock. Just as Moses smote the rock so that water poured out for His people to drink; so it was that God smote His son Jesus Christ by bruising Him and crucifying Him for the sins of the world, so that His blood would be poured out for His people to drink; and have remission of sins. Think of this every time we partake in communion in remembrance of Christ; that He is the heavenly manna and the Rock who was smote for the remission of sins. So it is that Christ is also the Stone; the Chief Corner Stone by which our foundation begins, which becomes the very foundation which we build our faith on. Jesus Christ is our refuge, our shelter, our immutable and impenetrable Rock which becomes our sanctuary.

The duration of God is immutable:

Genesis 21:33 And Abraham planted a tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of Jehovah, the everlasting God.

Psalms 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

We see in these two passages that, God is referred to as everlasting and everlasting to everlasting. This conveys that there is no beginning, neither any end to the eternal duration of God. God is an eternal being and that will never change. His eternal duration will never grow neither decrease in measure; God’s eternality is immeasurable and unchangeable.

Consider also Abraham planting the tree in Beer-sheba. In this place he called on the name of Jehovah. John Gill proposes that, it is most likely that he planted the tree to provide shade, but he also called on God’s name meaning he settled and worshiped God in public. And so it serves us well to follow this example from our forefather of faith; that wherever we go we ought to unashamedly worship God. If you are going to plant anything on the soil of which your feet tread; let it be the Gospel of Christ firmly planted in the hearts of men wherever you go.

Romans 16:26 but now has been made plain, and by the prophetic Scriptures, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.

1Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

1 Timothy 6:16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in light which cannot be approached, whom no one of men have seen, nor can see; to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.

Immutability of God’s will and mind:

I believe one of the greatest qualities of God within His attribute of immutability; is the immutability of His mind and will. Unlike God; natural man can rarely go a day without telling a lie. Neither can live a day without changing his mind in relation to anything. Man attempts to meet his goals; makes his plans, but whatever goal is not failed, it is culminated with inaccuracy and miscalculation. More often than not man has to lie or sin in order to meet a desired goal. But not our God:

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?

What has God ever spoken or decreed that has not come to pass? All of existence subsists because of His spoken word. God does not change his mind or repent as man does. Man realizes his sin and repents to follow in the holiness of God; but God does not necessitate following anyone, and neither has any reason to repent, because His ways are perfect and Holy.

Hebrews 6:18 so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

These two immutable things spoken of in the book of Hebrews are His oath and His counsel; as it is written in the preceding two verses. His oath and counsel can never fail, they can never deceive, they can never confuse, and His promises are true and trustworthy from eternity. The unchangeableness of His oath and counsel are a strong consolation and strong comfort to us who are His. It is by His eternal unchanging oath and counsel that God saved us through the work of Christ, which becomes our refuge we flee to for the hope of salvation. This salvation is a consolation to us because God has promised it to us from eternity for us who believe in Christ, and God cannot lie or repent from His promises as it also reads in:

1Titus 1:2 on hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the eternal times.

What about the contenders of this doctrine? Those who may say, God is not immutable. God is mutable because He changes His mind as it is written in:

Genesis 6:6-7 And Jehovah repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was angry to His heart. 7 And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For I repent that I have made them.

To any logical mind this may seem as a contradiction considering the many verses presented referencing God’s immutability. But to the Christian rational mind it is easily justified. Arthur Pink justifies it by saying that, “When speaking of Himself, God frequently accommodates His language to our limited capacities,” (Pink). Theologian and expositor of the whole bible, John Gill proposes that, attributes of this kind of expression from God is anthropopathy. Webster’s dictionary defines anthropopathy as- The affections of man, or the application of human passions to the Supreme Being. What this is conveying is that God uses anthropopathy so that man may realize how truly degenerate man has become in their wickedness. If God could ever change His mind, which He cannot, but if there was one thing that would cause Him to repent; it is the creation of man. We have fallen so short of the glory of God, our imagination is only evil continually. We are slaves to the very lusts that we wish to fulfill. We are disobedient creatures; we deceive and manipulate in order to receive our carnal pleasures. Our lives are filled with malice; we envy and hate one another to the end of murdering, maiming and raping. Our heart is flooded with wickedness, adultery and fornication. How could God love such a wretched thing as us? How could God not cast all of His creation to the lowest parts of hell? How could such a Holy God not destroy all His creation? What kind of incomprehensible love is this God that He would choose to pardon an innumerable measure of wicked men? By removing Himself from His throne to wrap himself in the nature of His creation; in order to be murdered and crucified by His own people. May God’s passionate human language delivered to us; incline us to understand how low and hopeless we truly are toward salvation. The sinful nature of man is so corrupt, that if left to our own will we would never choose to follow Christ and would walk straight through the gates of hell by our own device. But God is an immutable God who we can depend on.

Romans 11:29 For the free gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Although God has used anthropopathy to express to us our own degeneracy; God never uses anthropopathy with a negative connotation or suggestion for those whom He has called on to salvation. In this God is immutable.

There are two doctrines that the Lord has made me aware of in my walk with our God that has left me in admiration of His majesty. The one doctrine has raised my curiosity to a pinnacle of desire to want to learn everything within His scriptures that can possibly be learned. The second doctrine has brought my intellect to a closer knowledge of whom and what God is, that I now have a yearning for His knowledge that will never be fulfilled. It has brought my mind; my emotions, my spirit, my soul, and my heart to a helpless submission to the absolute sovereign will of God.

The first doctrine, I bring up only in passing is the doctrine of predestination. This doctrine along with all of its antecedent doctrines and its subsequent doctrines reveals to us a system of theology, which places the Gospel of Christ in its most proper perspective. It stands alone in comparison to any other Christian system. The second doctrine is the subject of tonight’s learning; the sovereignty of God. If any man can approach these two doctrines objectively instead of subjectively, which is to say; leave your biased emotions and tainted finite rationality outside of the scriptures. A study of these two doctrines with an objective approach and a desire to only want to know exactly what God is teaching; will leave the student of God marveled about the character and attributes of God. So marveled that I’m left cognitively strained because I cannot find enough vocabulary to properly express enough glory to God for His sovereignty!

Last week we learned about the attribute of God’s supremacy; meaning that God is the highest authority over every aspect and over everything. Arthur Pink defines the sovereignty of God as, “the exercise of His supremacy,” (Pink). God who has absolute authority over everything is in control of everything and exercises His free will however He desires. The Advanced English Dictionary defines sovereign as, “not controlled by outside forces.” This definition is in complete harmony with the first attribute of God’s solitariness; that God is not contingent on any forces outside of His triune deity to exercise His will. God is absolutely self governing, independent, and autonomous; God is sovereign!

God is sovereign over heaven and earth:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Deuteronomy 10:14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to Jehovah your God, the earth also, with all in it.

It is said by logicians and philosophers that whatever exists cannot be created out of nothing. To that point I agree, surely something cannot proceed from nothing; something must proceed from something. It is said by some Christians that God did create something out of nothing, and that is the miraculous power of God. I understand that my brothers mean to convey, that before there was anything metaphysically existing God created out of nothing, and which God did create through a spoken word; however, to phrase is it as something out of nothing is just illogical to the rational mind. I believe it is better logically stated; that God certainly did create something out of something. God is the source of all creation, therefore the something out of something is Himself, and He molded the universe and its planets the way God decreed it to be and it all belongs to Him. Give glory to God for His sovereignty.

God is sovereign over nature and weather:

Exodus 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And Jehovah caused the sea to recede by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

Only by God’s miraculous sovereign power was He able to blow such a strong sharp wind piercing through the ocean causing a separation wide enough and long enough; as the scripture reads, “all that night” God blew a constant wind holding the ocean walls for hours. God created a safe passage for His people as he dried up the wet and muddy ocean soil; making it possible to bring through carriages and whatever spoils God gave them from Egypt. Then by God’s awesome providence, He ceased His wind to blow; and allowed the divided ocean to close in and crush, drown, and kill the Army of Pharaoh. This amazing display of power goes to show; that just as God made a way for the salvation of His people from the Army of Pharaoh, so also all who God calls unto salvation will come to Christ. There is no force in existence that can keep God’s people from being delivered from Egypt, which translates to us as being delivered from the wages of sin which is death. Repent of your sins and call on the Lord your God. Believe in Christ and be saved, because just as God split the sea; God would split this universe to save one of His lost sheep while at the same time preserving the 99 that are left in the wilderness. God is sovereign.

Jonah 4:5-8 And Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east of the city. And he made himself a booth there and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would happen in the city. 6 And Jehovah God prepared a plant, and it came up over Jonah, to be shade over his head, in order to deliver him from his misery. And Jonah rejoiced with great joy over the plant. 7 But God prepared a worm as the morning dawned the next day. And it struck the plant, and it withered. 8 And it happened when the sun shone, God ordained a scorching east wind. And the sun beat on the head of Jonah, so that he fainted. And he asked for his life to die. And he said, better is my death than my life.

The prophet Jonah had just preached repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah made himself some shade from the burning sun; most likely from the brush and leafs of the trees. Then as it reads God ordained a plant to grow and relieve Jonah of the heat. Then God prepared a worm to devour the plant over night. The next day the sun rose to heat; God ordained a strong wind to add to Jonahs misery causing him to faint. The point of this text tonight is not to exegete it, but to reveal to you God’s sovereignty over His created elements. God commanded the plant to grow for Jonah and it obeyed and grew. God commanded a worm to devour it and the worm obeyed. God commanded the wind to blow and it did.

God makes the impossible to occur for His people. Never think that there is something you ought not to pray for. Never think that something is not significant enough to pray for. No prayer is too unimportant for God. Never think that God has better things to do, or not enough time because God knows no time. Seek the mighty will of God and He will give you the desires of your heart because if Christ is first in your life; there is your treasure, there is your reward. God knows of all the things you have need of in order to fulfill God’s plan for your life. There will be times of suffering but God’s sovereignty will provide the shade; however, do not allow your anger to get the best of you when God ordains the shade to temporarily be removed. God is sovereign.

God is sovereign over Nations and its rulers:

Joshua 11:20 For it was of Jehovah to harden their hearts so that they should come against Israel in battle, so that they might be destroyed, so that they might have no favor, but that He might destroy them, as Jehovah commanded Moses.

Up to this point Joshua had gone to war with many cities and slaughtered kings and all the king’s men and plundered all their spoils. No enemy was left breathing at the order of Moses which came directly from God. Only the Hivites of Gibeon were at peace with Israel, and all this was from God’s sovereignty as God hardened the hearts of nations in order to go to war with Israel. God informed Joshua not to fear, God decreed that Joshua would have the victory and he did. All this hardening of nation’s hearts from God was so that they may be destroyed and their land taken captive for the nation of Israel; and so it was that Joshua took the land and divided it between the tribes.

This is the God of the bible. This is your sovereign Lord. If you are called by God, chosen to be His people; God would kill any opposition in order to achieve His good plan through your life. We need to do nothing but obey His commandments. God is faithful and just to supply our needs for His purpose. God is sovereign.

God is sovereign over people’s hearts:

Genesis 20:6 And God said to him in a dream, Yes, I know that you did this in the sincerity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me. Therefore I did not allow you to touch her.

For the second time Abraham had fallen into the sin of lying by presenting His wife Sarah as his sister instead of his wife. Both times were for the sake of selfish ambitions including fear for his life. Scriptures refer to Abraham’s wife as a beautiful woman even in her nineties; she was desirable to kings because of the fact that she had to this point not bore any children yet. King Abimelech called Abraham’s wife Sarah with intentions of marring her thinking she was Abraham’s sister. God spoke to the King in a dream and told Him he will die for taking her. The king contested for his innocence arguing that he took her with sincerity of heart thinking she was not married, and that he had not touched her. The lord replied that it was God who withheld him from sinning against the Lord. God then commanded that he return the prophets wife and he shall live.

Abraham; expressed in the scriptures as one of the greatest men of faith reveals that any one of God’s children may backslide into sin. He had repented once for lying about his wife when a Pharaoh of Egypt tried to take Sarah as his wife, and the Lord struck the Pharaoh with a plague so that he would return Sarah to Abraham undefiled. Then again tempted by the same sin Abraham falls, and God forgives. We men are such weak creatures. It is amazing how slow God is to anger with us. It is amazing how merciful God is with us; withholding from us what we deserve, his wrath. Instead He is gracious to give us Christ and forgive our sins as He forgave Abraham for being willing to use his wife. Our spouses, our family, and our friends are all unreliable, but the merits of Christ alone are unfailing. God is sovereign.

Proverbs 16:1 The ordering of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from Jehovah.

In this verse; the heart is meant the mind, intellect, and thinking of man. The next clause deals with speaking, which cannot happen unless a thought first occurs in the mind. Do not be offended because God is sovereign over the minds of men. The human mind can never truly know how corrupt, evil, and tainted with sin the heart and mind really is. To this point:

Mark 7:21,22 reads; For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

Genesis 6:5 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

We see consistently that the heart of man is referred to as the mind of man being evil continually. Whenever any man says, “deep down in my heart, I am a good man” know that it is a lie. It is an immense benefit that God is sovereign over the hearts of men, because it is by His grace that God’s goodness restrains the evil of man’s heart by His power of suppressing men’s sin as we previously saw in Genesis 20:6 with King Abimelech. If God were to remove His righteousness from the earth God only knows what kind of hell on earth there may be. Have you realized that the preaching of the Gospel restrains evil on Earth? Have you not considered what this world may look like without true religion? It is said by some of my eschatological amillennial, and premillennial brothers that the world will continually become more and more evil. I say no brothers; since the commissioning of the Gospel being sent to the four corners of the earth, evil has been restrained. Remove the Gospel and then we will see evil at its climax through the degenerate hearts of man’s depravity. Thank God that he is sovereign over the hearts of men.

God is sovereign over whom He reveals the Gospel too:

Luke 8:10 And He said, to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others I speak in parables, so that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand.

John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

If you approach these passages objectively outside of personal emotions; the meaning is very clear. Christ said, “it is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom” what are the mysteries of the Kingdom? It is the revelation of Christ, the understanding of His parables, the understanding of God’s word, and the believing of the Gospel of Christ. Christ speaks in parables because it is given only to whom God chooses to understand; the rest of the world can hear but not understand, they can see only the carnal things of the world, but are blind to the spiritual matters of God.

2Corinthians 4:2-4 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the Word of God, but by the revelation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But also if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those being lost, 4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving ones, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ (who is the image of God) should not dawn on them.

In verse 2 The Apostle Paul is speaking about walking in practical righteousness; Renouncing all things that are contrary to God’s word and Gospel of Christ. Preaching the Gospel to men’s consciences in the sight of God; meaning with the understanding that God, in a real way is presently observing their courage and uncompromised teachings. Without craftiness or adulteration of the Word of God as Paul puts it. What this means is that, when the Apostle’s preached the Gospel to the consciences of men; they left it all on the line and held nothing back. Neither craftiness, nor adulteration means that, the Apostles never sought any methods of trying to make the Gospel more appealing or entertaining to men. They did not mix the Word of God with any vain philosophy, neither any carnal doctrines currently popular to men; neither did they compromise the Gospel by holding back the hard doctrines that they knew may offend the hearts and minds of men. The Apostles knew that God observes all their teachings and one day will be held accountable for their integrity and courage of ministering the Gospel. And so it is with us who minister this day. Pray for the love, wisdom, authority, courage, and boldness to minister the Gospel with no compromise. Whenever you think; “maybe I should not teach this”, teach it! It is not men who you are trying to please, it is God. If you think, “I do not want to offend people and chase them away, then they won’t hear the Gospel,” Remember that the Gospel’s intent is also to separate the sheep from the goats. If someone walks away because you preached the Gospel with no compromise; do not worry. Concern yourself with preaching an adulterated Gospel and let the Holy Spirit do His bidding throughout the masses; do you not trust God?

Verse 3 reads “if our Gospel is hidden it is hidden to those being lost.” By our gospel is meant that we are entrusted with it. We bear the responsibility of rightly dividing the Word of God so take it serious. If our Gospel is hidden; the Gospel is not outwardly hidden, because they had the manifestation of Christ. In the Old Testament the Jews had the ceremonial law which typified and pointed to the prophecy of Christ. They had the Apostles preaching repentance and the kingdom. Now we have the canonization of the 66 books of the bible. The Gospel is not hidden in the outward sense, so if it is hidden as Paul said; it is hidden to all whom the Gospel has not yet been revealed by God. All are born lost, so the Gospel is inwardly hidden from the hearts of all men who’s minds are blinded as written in verse 4; “in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving ones, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ (who is the image of God) should not dawn on them.” This is a hard truth, but must be settled. Until God illuminates the mind of whom He wills with the light of the Gospel of Christ; the unbelieving man will remain lost until his death. So let this be an inspiration and motivation to move every human faculty within us to pray for the lost; to minister to the lost, to preach the Gospel without compromise to the lost. We have no clue on who God will choose, or why God chose. Do not waste a thought on it. The fact is that God will illuminate the minds of an innumerable number of men with the light of the Gospel before Christ returns and we are privileged to be used by God to bring that light to all men. Glory to God, He is sovereign.