Lk. 6:27-36, Goodness/Kindness vs Sins of Hatred (2)

To deal with the sins of hatred sometimes is difficult, because we are unwilling to face up to them.  The word of God is to be like a mirror for us, revealing what we are really like (Jas. 1:23).  Are we willing to accept what it says, and confess our sins?

·       We are not to hate even our enemies but to love them (Mt. 5:43-48).  We hate when we don’t love.  Are there not even times when we treat our loved ones as enemies? 

·       Rom. 13:13 says to behave decently.  Interesting!  Indecent behavior is like orgies and drunkenness, debauchery.  That we readily accept.  But then it also says: not in strife (that’s the word for contentions in Gal. 5:20) and jealousy (note, as in Gal. 5:20, how jealousy and contention go together).  Being contentious is indecent behavior!

·       1 Cor. 3:3 tells us that jealousy is “worldly” (carnal).  And again: jealousy (envy in the NKJV is the Greek term for jealousy used in Gal. 5:20) is tied to strife (NKJV contentions in Gal. 5:20) and divisions (NKJV dissensions in Gal. 5:20).  By now we should understand, that when we are argumentative with others, the problem stems from some issue of jealousy in us!

·       The accompanying fits of rage must be put off (Eph. 4:31), along with bitterness, slander and every other form of malice.  Do you hear that?  Rage is malicious!

We need to confess this as sin (1 John 1:9), agreeing with God rather than denying what we see in the mirror of the Word.  Confession is necessary for the cleansing work of Christ to become real to us.  Remember, He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy (Pr. 28:13).  There is no repentance without confession.  And we must repent of the sins of hatred.

Repentance means to turn around.  It implies turning from something (sins of hatred) and turning to something.  What fruit of the Spirit bring victory over hatred?  Certainly, love and self-control are fundamental; and gentleness and faithfulness will contribute mightily.  But here are two that are tied to hatred in Scripture.

Ø Goodness: This is the broader term of the two.  It includes confrontive types of goodness (discipline) as well as doing good works (meeting needs).

Ø Kindness: This refers only to positive acts of kindness.

Both terms are not mere thoughts or attitudes but require genuine expressions.  You should have seen the connection in today’s reading.  In our next post we will work through that passage and another critical passage in Romans.  For now, let us be encouraged to hear the Lord and to see ourselves in the mirror of Scripture.  Let us confess our jealousies and the hurtful results they bring.  In your contentions, you may want to call attention to the issues in the other person/people.  But this will only serve to destroy your own testimony of grace.  Let us hear the Lord and fear Him.

1 Sam. 18:1-9, Goodness/Kindness vs Sins of Hatred (1)

What happens when you find yourself in a relationship (work, school, kin, someone you have to deal with) with someone who is arrogant?  For example, the brothers of Joseph (Gen. 37) considered their younger brother to be haughty.  I don’t think he was, but they thought he was.

What happens when a subordinate of yours increases in popularity or acclaim so that people speak more highly of him than of you?  An illustration would be Saul’s jealousy of young David (1 Sam. 18:6-7).

What happens when someone else achieves a success that you had sought but did not attain?  For example, think about Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:1-8).  Cain was the oldest.  Yet Abel pleased God while Cain did not.

What happens when someone is blessed by God in a way that you are convinced you will never experience?  Take Hagar and Sara (Gen. 16:5-6).  Sara gave Hagar to Abram; Hagar conceived; Sara was convinced she was too old to ever bear a child.

What happens when someone is blessed in a way he clearly didn’t deserve, while you believe you deserve the blessing but have never received it?  Remember the prodigal son and his brother (Lk. 15:25-32)?  The prodigal returned to his father and dad threw a party.  The older brother did as the father desired and never got a party.

Every one of these illustrations came to involve the sins of “hatred.”  Each situation involved someone who did not understand or accept God’s will.  Some were impatient.  But in each, one person lashed out at the other.

In Gal. 5:20 we find four “sins of hatred.”

·       Hatred: This is enmity, the central sin in this group.  It is the state or actions of an enemy against his foe.

·       Contentions: This is the expression of enmity: strife or discord, constant or frequent argument.

·       Jealousies: This has a good and a bad side.  On the good side it refers to zeal, especially in maintaining a relationship.  On the bad side it is desiring to be what someone else is.  This is the motive for hatred: we hate because someone else is something we are not but want to be.

·       Outbursts of wrath: This is the tactic of one who hates.  It is to be filled with passion so that you are not in control of your words and actions.  These are sudden, usually short-lived and long-regretted.

The usual order of these sins is thus …

Jealousies >>> Hatred >>> Contentions >>> Outbursts of wrath!

What do we do when we sin in this fashion?  What must be “put on” in their place?  We will consider this in the coming posts.

Mt. 26:14-16, 21-25, The Delivered One

What I want to do on this day is post something that was part of our teaching in yesterday’s Resurrection message from Acts 2:22-24.  We noted that Jesus is “the Delivered One.”  Ac. 2:23 can be translated, “by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, the Delivered One you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.”  The term “delivered” is an adjective.  It seems to be the same as the references to Satan as “the Wicked one” (e.g. 1 John 5:19). 

A good question to ask is, “who delivered up Jesus?”  It’s a good question because Scripture has some definite answers.

·       Matt. 26:16: Judas delivered Jesus up to the Chief Priests.  The word for “betrayed” (Greek paradidomi) is in the same family as our word “delivered” (Greek exdotus, dotus being a derivative of didomi).

·       Acts 3:13: The people of Israel delivered Jesus up to Pilate.  The way they did this is truly amazing, revealing how determined they were to rid themselves of Jesus.  Not only did they cry out “Crucify” to Pilate.  They also told Pilate they had no king but Caesar (Jn. 19:15).  On any other day, at any other time, they would never have said that.  They despised Caesar.  Then they cried out, his blood be upon us and on our children (Mt. 27:25).  Truly, in 70AD the nation reaped the harvest of their rejection of Christ.

·         Mt. 27:26: Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him up to the soldiers, who mocked Him and then crucified Him.

·       Gal. 2:20: Jesus delivered Himself up for us.  You might not have noted this in your English translation, but it’s true.  This great passage ends, the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  “Gave” is Greek paradidomi.  Remember, that in all the abuses of justice perpetrated against Christ, He remained silent.  He had committed Himself to the will of His Father, throughout His life and ministry, and then afresh in Gethsemane.

·       Rom. 8:32: God, the Father, delivered Him up for us all.  What the Father did involved the entirety of the Incarnation.  This was the determined counsel of the Father.  Jesus was destined for the cross from eternity past, and in time, from the moment He left the glory of heaven.

Now we must note someone else who delivered up Jesus to the cross.  I did!  And so did you.  The last two passages tell us He was delivered up “for us.”  The word “for” is Greek huper, “on behalf of.”  He was delivered up on my behalf, to clear up a problem that I had.  Neither the Father nor the Son had my problem; but they loved me such that they were willing to solve the problem I could not solve myself. 

Psalm 5

(Greetings on this Easter, remembering again the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Our post this morning is in line with our plan of working through the Psalms on Sundays.  So it is not directed towards Easter.  We do invite you to join our fellowship on Facebook Live, available after 9:45AM Mountain Daylight Time.  You will need to befriend us on Facebook; our page is RonCindy Youde. Our teaching will be from Acts 2:22-24.)

Many of us ask for guidance from the Lord, as does the Psalmist in this Psalm (v8).  But what do we mean when we ask this of our God?  Compare your answer to that question with that of David the King.

After pleading with God to hear him (v1-3), David is reminded that God is holy and will have no connection at all with sin (v4-6).  David then contrasts his own approach to God (v7-8) with that of his foes (v9-10), ending with a prayer that the righteous will rejoice in God’s blessing (v11-12). 

Consider these few thoughts verse-by-verse.

·         v1: “”Consider my meditation”: perceive, understand my murmuring. In Ps. 39:3 this word speaks of a strong, burning thought within that he shares with no one else.  God knows our hearts; we can trust His ability to understand our hearts accurately, with more precision than we know ourselves.

·         v2: “My King and my God”: “King” refers to rulers or chiefs at a variety of levels, though most often used of the King.  Other Semitic languages had a similar term.  For the Ammonites their chief god was “Molech”.  For God’s people the King was not the one chosen and thus empowered by the people.  He was God’s Anointed (Ps. 2:2; 18:50).  Thus the King had one ultimate allegiance, one Sovereign.  God (Elohim) was his King!  Certainly you can see the connection between David and the greater Son of David, Messiah (the Anointed One).  The Davidic king was to be God’s “Son” (Ps. 2:7), God’s Firstborn (Ps. 89:27).  These titles in Psalms of David were not merely figurative; they were anticipatory, predictive of the Eternal Son.

·         v3:  This is a morning prayer.  It seeks God’s guidance and blessing.  Thus the first thing God’s people do, at beginning of day, is to “look up” to God for the day’s needs.  How do our days begin?  Does anyone think that the answer to that question is not important?  Coffee?  Newspaper? Breakfast?  Jogging?  In the presence of your King?

·         v4-6: In a negative way David describes the holiness of God.  God IS the absence of evil; it shall not dwell with or be at home with God.  It has no standing with Him.  He hates and abhors and will destroy those who are defined by evil. 

·         v4: “You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness”: Evil is never funny or enjoyable to God.  He is not “a God” like that, indicating there are gods who do gain pleasure from sin. 

·         v5: “workers of iniquity”: Iniquity is a term that indicates trouble, the aftermath of sin.  These workers  are frequently spoken of in the Psalms (15X).  They do those things that result in trouble.  And yet they worship the gods that take pleasure in wickedness.  This is important to consider in this Psalm.  In the end the Psalmist will ask for God’s blessing that results in great joy and rejoicing.  Thus there is a contrast between those who take pleasure in sin and those, the righteous, who are blessed by God (v12).

·         v7-10:  Therefore David calls on God to hear his prayer (v7-8) and to judge the workers of iniquity (v9-10).

·         v7: David does not come in the sense of deserving God’s blessing.  He rather acknowledges his only basis to seek God is mercy and the only way he will enter God’s presence is in fear (reverence, with trembling).  Note that by mercy we have entrance into the “house” of God!  In fear we enter into His holy temple.  For many this is a necessary clarification.  We love to think of God and His house of delights or blessing.  It is true, very true, that God desires to abundantly bless His people.  So when we come let us come knowing it is of His mercy.  But when we come to God let us remember we enter a “holy temple” as well.  It is a relationship of worship characterized by the holiness of God referred to in v4-6.  We do not, we cannot, come into his presence as people who find pleasure in wickedness.  He is a merciful and holy God.

·         v8: When we come to God in this way we are truly prepared to ask for His leading.  We will not ask, “lead me to what I want.”  We will instead ask, “Lead me in Your righteousness.”  We will seek HIS way.

·         v9-10: David reminds God of the nature of the workers of iniquity.  What he describes is the depravity into which every human is born.  The Apostle Paul understood this.  In Romans 3 he drew from a collection of Old Testament passages to describe the sinfulness of all men.  One of the quotes is the last half of Psalm 5:9.  Their throat is an open tomb or sepulcher.  Think of the stench, the filth of an “open tomb”.  That is the nature of the natural man.  Thus, as is the case in Rom 3, so here, they are declared guilty.

·         v11-12:  There is a question that must be considered in the move from v9-10 to v11-12.  If v9-10 describe all mankind, it includes David.  It includes those on whom he prays God’s blessing.  This “enigma” is of course clarified perfectly in Romans (and all the New Testament) in the salvation provided through the Lamb of God.  Those “who put their trust in You” (v11) are those who are trusting God for salvation.  They are those whose faith will be credited as righteousness (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4).  Remember, David knew his sinfulness, that he too was depraved.  He came to God in reverential fear, and he came “in the multitude of Your mercy”.  Remember, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

May we begin our mornings, every morning, in the house of God, His holy temple.  You need not leave your house or even your bedroom.  Access into His presence has been opened wide by the blood of Christ.  But come, not in the pleasure of wickedness, but in mercy and fear.  Not mere human pleasure but deep joy will be yours as He surrounds you with His favor.

Matt. 27:57-68, The Illegal Trial of Jesus (2)

We are continuing with the list of illegalities committed in the Jewish trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin.

·       In a local council, eleven votes out of the total of twenty-three were required for acquittal, but thirteen were required for conviction.

·       If the accused was found innocent, he was freed immediately.

·       But if he was found guilty, the sentence was not pronounced until two days later and, as mentioned above, the council members were required to fast during the intervening day.

·       On the morning of the third day the council was reconvened, and each judge, in turn, was asked if he had changed his decision. A vote for condemnation could be changed to acquittal, but not the reverse.

·       If a guilty verdict was reaffirmed, an officer with a flag remained near the council while another officer, often mounted on horseback, escorted the prisoner to the place of execution. A herald went before the slow-moving procession declaring in a loud voice, "This man (stating his name) is led to punishment for (the crime was stated); the witnesses who have sworn against him are (stating the names of the persons); if anyone has evidence to give in his favor, let him come forth quickly." If, at any time before the sentence was carried out, additional information pertaining to innocence came to light, including the prisoner's recollection of something he had forgotten, one officer would signal the other, and the prisoner would be brought back to the council for reconsideration of the verdict.

·       Before the place of execution was reached, the condemned person was urged to confess his crime, if he had not already done so, and was given a strong drink to dull his senses and thereby make his death less painful.

·       The governing principle in capital cases was: "The Sanhedrin is to save, not destroy, life."

·        In addition to the above provisions, the president of the council was required to remind prospective witnesses of the preciousness of human life and to admonish them to be certain their testimony was both true and complete.

·       No criminal trial could begin during or continued into the night.

·       The property of an executed criminal could not be confiscated but was passed to his heirs.

·       Voting was done from the youngest member to the oldest in order that the former would not be influenced by the latter.

·       And if a council voted unanimously for conviction, the accused was set free, because the necessary element of mercy was presumed to be lacking.

Given all these abuses of jurisprudence, we must note that Jesus Himself said nothing about these things.  Sometimes people complain about judges and courts as part of a “victim” mentality.  Jesus did not see Himself as a victim.  He saw Himself as obedient to the will of His Father, a matter He settled in Gethsemane, before the abuses began.  After all, He was delivered up by the determinate counsel of God (Acts 2:22-24).

Deut. 19:15-19; 17:6-7, The Illegal Trial of Jesus (1)

Again, there is a matter related to Acts 2:23 that I want to consider today.  To the men of Israel Peter said, you have taken (Christ) by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death. It is the matter of “lawless hands.”  One way to look at this is to consider the numerous illegalities committed against Christ in the trials before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.  We are not considering the illegalities perpetrated by Pilate, who declared Jesus innocent and yet delivered Him up to be crucified.  That is for another time.  We are limiting ourselves to those addressed by Peter.

The word “lawless” (Greek anomos) means to be without or against the law; departing from the law.  In other words, it deals with the law and law-breakers.  It is interesting to note: 1) the antichrist is called the lawless one (2 Th. 2:8); and 2)  Jesus was numbered with the “transgressors” (same Greek word).  Those who crucified Him with lawless hands sided with Satan at his worst.  And Jesus died for the very ones with lawless hands who crucified Him.

There were three basic rights granted to the accused: a public trial, defense counsel, and conviction only on the testimony of at least two reliable witnesses.  You can see this is rooted in Deuteronomy.  But the Sanhedrin operated with other “statutes and judgments” meant to flesh out these general rights.  This leads to a much longer list of illegalities committed by the Sanhedrin, against their own rules.

There is a somewhat “popular” list of these illegalities.  Popular in that you can find it on numerous web pages.  It comes from a book entitled The Testimony of the Evangelists (Jersey City, NJ: Frederick P. Linn, 1881, pp. 581-584) by Simon Greenleaf of Harvard.  He contains a section written by a lawyer, Joseph Salvador.  The lawyer explains the proper trial procedure used by the Sanhedrin.  I have taken this from a web page (jerusalembaptist.com).  After the list I will have a short comment.  Because of the length we will share this in two posts.

·       Because a defendant was protected against self-incrimination, his confession, no matter how convincing, was not sufficient in itself for conviction.

·       On the day of the trial the court officers would require all evidence against the accused person to be read in the full hearing of open court.

·       Each witness against him would be required to affirm that his testimony was true to the best of his knowledge and was based on his own direct experience and not on hearsay or presumption.

·       Witnesses also had to identify the precise month, day, hour, and location of the event about which they testified.

·       A council itself could not initiate charges against a person but could only consider charges brought before it by an outside party.

·       A woman was not allowed to testify because she was considered to lack the courage to give the first blow if the accused were convicted and sentenced to death.

·       Children could not testify because of their immaturity, nor could a slave, a person of bad character, or a person who was considered mentally incompetent.

·       There was always to be presumption of innocence, and great latitude was given the accused in presenting his defense.  (To be continued.)

Acts 2:22-32, What has God determined?

The teaching in the local church I serve will be from this passage this Sunday.  I don’t have time to do a word study of the word determined in Ac. 2:23. The Greek term is orizo.  If you put a pro in front of this verb you have the word usually translated “pre-destined.”  Oh, great, you are thinking.  Here we go on the Calvin-Wesley debate, or Arminius or whoever you want.  Well, no!  That is not where we are going.  If you have read this blog over the years you know I consider that argument to be generally non-productive.  One of the points in my teaching will be to point out that God was in full control of the crucifixion; He devised a plan that required Jesus to go to the cross.  Another point will be that the people who crucified Jesus were in full control of their lawless faculties. 

But here is what I want us to meditate on today.  In the NT uses of orizo and proorizio what are we told God has determined? 

·       Acts 2:23: God determined Jesus being delivered up.  This term can speak of the betrayal by Judas.  From the human perspective the betrayal kicked off the taking and crucifying of Jesus so that He died.  This was prophesied (Zech. 11:12-13).  That did not make it happened but it guaranteed it would happen.  Jesus knew Judas was a liability (John 6:70-71).

·       Acts 4:28: As persecution began to hit the early believers, they went to pray.  And they took comfort in knowing that God had pre-determined the suffering of Jesus.  Thus they could understand, as Jesus said, that if they persecuted the Teacher they would persecute His followers.  Are you in a hard trial?  Consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.  You have not resisted unto bloodshed, striving against sin (Heb. 12:3).

·       Luke 22:21-22: This speaks of the same event.  The betrayal was the way God determined for the righteous Son of God to become sin for us.  Meditate on this.  What does it say about God’s love?  About the sacrifice of Christ?

·       Acts 10:42; 17:31:  These passages tell us God determined to judge the world by His Son, the Lord Jesus.  Peter told Cornelius this..; Paul told the Athenians on Mars Hill.  He will judge the nations/Gentiles.

·       Rom. 1:4: Jesus was “declared” to be the Son of God by His resurrection.  This is, to me, a poor translation.  The term is orizo, He was set in place, determined to be the Son of God.  This was God’s plan all along: THE RESURRECTION!

·       1 Cor. 2:7: You can wrap up everything we have seen so far in this: the mystery of God is His wisdom that is at work in the world to this day.  If the rulers of the world knew this, they would not have crucified Christ (v8 says so).  The mystery is God’s promise to exalt His Son, from Zion, over the nations (Psalm 2).  But note the last phrase of 1 Cor. 2:7: for our glory.  How does this affect us?

·       Rom. 8:29-30: God pre-determined that we should be conformed to the image of Christ.  Our glory is Christ’s glory.  The more we are like Christ the more we bear His glory.  But how can this happen?

·       Eph. 1:5: The answer is that God also pre-determined that those who believe in Christ should receive the adoption of sons.  We become sons of God.  That is the only way we could ever hope to be conformed to THE Son of God.  As new creatures. we have been born again into God’s Family.

What a great plan the Father has set in order, wouldn’t you say?  It could not be better.  What a great Savior we have, who bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might live in righteousness.