Posts Tagged ‘ dedication ’

Tweets & Rants 4 March 2013: Matthew 22:15-33; Romans 3; Psalm 51; Numbers 7-8

believes this is an astonishing teaching, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live as do all who have faith in Christ! Mat 22:31-33 @WeeManWest

is thankful for the abundant love and mercy of God that a sinner like himself can be washed and cleansed of his sin. Psa 51:1 @WeeManWest

Matthew 22:20 Whereas Caesar’s inscription and likeness were on the roman currency and therefore the currency was Caesar’s, God’s inscription and likeness are on every man and we owe God all that we are, our entire being belongs to God.

Matthew 22:31 Jesus is teaching something very interesting here in regard to this question. He begins with, “as for the resurrection of the dead” then goes on to say, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead, BUT OF THE LIVING.”

Jesus is teaching here that the resurrection is not as it was and still is commonly understood. Yes, indeed at the last day Christ will return and the dead will be raised. However, a first resurrection, a first fruits must occur. The resurrection of a man from his dead works to life everlasting in Christ.

This is why the crowd was astonished. Christ was saying clearly that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were living! Yes, they were physically dead but they shared in the first resurrection by faith in Christ so they live and the live still today.

Romans 3:6 Hence we see a common argument that is made. If sin glorifies God and is used by God to further His purposes how then can God inflict His wrath on sinful men? The argument takes the concept of predestination at its root by arguing that men do not have free will to choose sin that instead sin is chosen for them by God.

We are free moral agents and yet God predestines. How hard the two are to interlink in our minds!?

Yet, I take the cop out on this one. I beleive both are true because the Bible teaches that both are true. Yet, I don’t fully understand how they can both be true, nor can I stretch my arm into heaven to mark where the line exists that separates the two in the mind of God. Such is not for mortal man to comprehend, it is God’s.

Romans 3:10 We must comprehend this one truth of the Bible if we are ever to be of any use at all to our Creator. Not a single one of us lives without sin in full righteousness before God. Righteousness is a God thing. Any righteousness we are or that we will have will come from God for His own purposes and glory.

All of mankind has a common need, it is only a matter of us becoming aware of our need. We’re all worthless for the purposes for which God designed us. We don’t naturally look for God but for everything but God. We’ve made a mess of this world and yet are prideful enough to blame God for the mess. What a wretched people we are before a holy God!

Romans 3:20 One of the most difficult conversations to have is the one that explains to a lost soul that no amount of their own good works is sufficient to save them. No one is saved by the Law, or by their good works, for both together are instructive. They make man aware of his own sinfulness.

When we read the Law we become aware of all of the unlawful activities in which we have participated. When we do a good work we remember all the times in which we had the best of intentions and yet lacked the follow through to do the work.

Romans 3:26 God has divinely passed over our sins in the blood of Christ. He does this so that He is just and justifier. Just in that His law has been fulfilled in Christ’s life and in His sacrificial death of atonement. In other words, He doesn’t have to compromise His Law in order to save mankind. He is justifier in that He makes us just by faith in Christ. He knows our hearts. He makes us just by our faith in who Christ is and in what He has done.

Faith no longer looks to one’s ability to keep the law or one’s ability to do good works for their justification. Faith looks to Christ, God Himself, as the only one in history who kept the Law and did the works necessary to bridge the gap between God and man.

Romans 3:31 Faith doesn’t teach a lawless existence but rather an existence in which the requirements of the Law were met, once for all, for all mankind, in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 51:1 The purpose of our salvation is not for our own prideful exaltation but rather that the love of God be exalted in His willingness to show us mercy that we by no means deserve.

Psalm 51:3 We are ever trapped in our sinfulness. Even in forgiveness the stains of our past continue to mar us as we walk into our future. We don’t forget our sinfulness.

Psalm 51:5 We are each infused with a sin nature. Just as Adam was made in the image and likeness of God, so Seth was born in the image and likeness of Adam. Adam passed his sin nature on to his lineage.

Psalm 51:6 Honesty with God in the deepest, darkest, recesses of our being is truly the best policy. Such a level of honesty with God will indeed develop an intimacy with God that is unmatched among any intimacy in this world.

Psalm 51:7 Yes, the very hyssop of the Passover feast, but also the same hyssop of the leper’s cleansing. Sin is a leprosy to our very souls that must be cleansed with hyssop.

Psalm 51:10 We must receive a new heart from God. Our heart is eaten away with leprosy and the decay of our sinfulness. God gives us a new heart in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 51:17 God’s desire is not that we offer enough animals or money to Him in pennance for our sins. God’s desire is that we come to Him in brokenness over our sinful and wretched existence seeking the transformed heart and life that He alone can provide in us through faith.

Are we really broken about our sin today? Does our sinfulness really bother us at all or do we excuse it as just who we are? May we be broken over our sinfulness and come to God for cleansing today.

Numbers 7:11 The altar was to be dedicated to the Lord with 12 rounds of offerings being made to the tabernacle.

Numbers 7:89 The voice of God would speak to Moses from the mercy seat between the two cherubim.

Numbers 8:2 The purpose of the lampstand was to give light…so also is our spirit-filled purpose in Christ!

Numbers 8:11 The Levites were to be offered as a wave offering from among the people of Israel. They were to be set apart to the service of the Lord.

Numbers 8:22 The Levites were assigned tabernacle duty instead of all the firstborn of the Israelites. They were given the ministry of the tabernacle to guard it, keep it, build it, and care for it. They were the keepers of the tabernacle.