THOT [THE HOUR OF TRUTH] 373, WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT GOD THINKS ABOUT YOU? That is an important question because whatever it is that will be HOW you approach Him, and how you deal with the people around you! “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” Gal. 4:21. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Rom. 10:4. 13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. HE DID THAT BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT WE COULD NEVER SAVE OURSELVES OR KEEP OURSELVES SAVED! Could righteousness have come by the law even though that is not why it was given, YES, IF someone could have kept it PERFECTLY, which our Lord did, but no other man in all the history of mankind did, or could have because of our flesh, For what the law could not do, IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: Rom. 8:3. Jesus came in the LIKENESS of sinful flesh, but later actually BECAME SIN IN THE FLESH FOR US, (even though he never sinned himself) one reason being to set us free from the curse of the law. What the law demanded was FULFILLED by him and he was our representative on this earth. Now, once that was done a NEW TESTAMENT could be established one TOTALLY UNLIKE the old, but like the one that he had made with Abraham which was UNCONDITIONAL, while the covenant made with Moses was CONDITIONAL. You can’t have it both ways; either the New Contract (covenant, testament) is unconditional or conditional! Let’s take moment and look at this COVENANT ISSUE. It is agreement between two groups of people. There are two kinds CONDITIONAL AND UNCONDITIONAL. A conditional or mutual covenant is an agreement that is binding on BOTH GROUPS OF PEOPLE FOR ITS FULFILLMENT. BOTH GROUPS OF PEOPLE AGREE TO FULFILL CERTAIN CONDITIONS. If either group fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither group has to fulfill the expectations of the covenant. An unconditional or ONE-SIDED covenant is an agreement between two groups of people, BUT ONLY ONE OF THE TWO GROUPS OF PEOPLE HAS TO DO SOMETHING. NOTHING IS REQUIRED OF THE OTHER GROUP. We know that the contact that God made with Abraham was UNCONDITIONAL. 1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I WILL make of thee a great nation, and I WILL bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I WILL bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Gen 12:1-3. Out of the eighty words used here you will not find the word “IF.” We PLAINLY see that God made promises to Abraham that ASKED NOTHING of Abraham. I want to include some scripture before we lose and explain what it means IT IS A BLESSING. Gen 15:8-21, 8 And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. 11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. 12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. 18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. Now, let me explain this ordeal. The ONLY time that BOTH groups of people of a covenant would pass between the pieces of animals was when the fulfillment of the covenant was DEPENDENT UPON “BOTH” GROUPS OF PEOPLE KEEPING COMMITMENTS. Concerning the meaning of “GOD ALONE” moving between the halves of the animals [we should take note of the fact that it is a smoking furnace and a flaming torch, representing God, NOT ABRAHAM] which passed between the pieces, this act NORMALLY would be shared by both groups of people, but NOT IN THIS CASE! HE IS THE ONE WHO BINDS HIMSELF. Hallelujah! God caused a sleep to fall upon Abraham so that he WOULD NOT BE ABLE to pass between the two halves of the animals. Fulfillment of the covenant was for God alone Hallelujah! We are ASLEEP, as in RESTING, resting fully in Christ for our complete salvation! In Romans chapter when the Holy Spirit, using Paul, was ready to COMPARE the church with someone, DID HE CHOOSE MOSES? Moses always represents the LAW. NO, he chose ABRAHAM! The New Covenant is based on the Abrahamic covenant … UNCONDITIONAL! Hallelujah! In searching the scripture I found NO PLACE where that changed after Abraham was made righteous! That being the case why do we teach that we are born again UNCONDITIONALLY and then after we are in the family it becomes CONDITIONAL! That is to say that God will bless us, love us, and favor us etc. “IF” we do thus and thus! SOMETHING IS WAY OUT OF KILTER IN MUCH OF TODAY’S TEACHING TO GOD’S PEOPLE! At the end of Romans chapter 4 God says this concerning who this covenant includes, 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. You are a part of the church (the body of Christ) because you believed that God raised Jesus from the dead … am I correct? Then God has made an UNCONDITIONAL COVENANT with you! We live just like we were born again, NOTHING CHANGES, For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Rom. 1:17. 6 As [in the same way] ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Col. 2:6-7. (Green words added by me) In closing, If therefore PERFECTION were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, AND NOT BE CALLED AFTER THE ORDER OF AARON? Heb. 7:11. To be continued. Think about it. Bill, the man who Jesus loves! “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Acts 17:11, 11/8/13.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:05:51 +0000
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