10-21-19
The precedent has been set. In the Old Testament, Moses stands before the people of Israel, and with the authority of God, states, “If you will keep these commandments I give to you this day, the Lord will be a blessing to you. He will bless your rising up and your setting down. He will bless your coming in and your going out. Blessed shall you be in the field and blessed shall you be in the house and blessed shall be the increase of your flocks. There shall be no barrenness in all the land and none shall cast their young.”
In Acts 1, Jesus has just been given all power in heaven and in earth and He stands before the charter members of His Church as Almighty God and He issues these three commands: “Wait for a baptism with the Holy Spirit, take this gospel, the gospel of the new covenant which I give to you this day, into all the world and you shall be witnesses to me, and disciple the converts.” The Church has failed to judge the precedent set by the Father through Moses. It has failed to recognize the establishment of the new covenant. And it has failed to put Acts 1 in the context of John 15:10, “In order to abide in my love, you must keep my commandments.”
Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to good people? Here is the answer; you cannot abide in Jesus’ love without keeping His commandments. Regardless of how good you are as a person, the only way to receive the blessings of the new covenant, which are far superior to the blessings of the Father under the old covenant, is to keep the commandments of Jesus.
By precedent, Jesus stands before us today to say, “I set before you blessings and cursings. He that keeps these commandments I set before you this day will be blessed. He will do the works I have done and do greater works than these because I go to the Father. He will bring blessings on all who surround him and I will share my glory with him and use him to glorify my God and spread my glory over the whole earth. The one who keeps these commandments I set before you this day will bask in my love and the Father will love him and I will manifest myself to him. I will do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything he might think or ask because he has set his heart on me to love me.”
Those who fail to recognize this establishment of the new covenant I make with you this day will live out their lives in frustration and sorrow. They will fail to reach their potential in me in the full knowledge they are living out their lives falling way short of that which was ordained. They will suffer with depression and heartache and all manner of sickness and disease will be their lot. They will struggle to know my love for them and search for me but not find me. Such will be their lot in this life because they fail to keep my commandments.
The point is the old covenant was established in a day. Moses said, “This day I set before you blessing and curses.” The new covenant was also established in a day but Jesus had previously said, “To abide in my love, you must keep my commandments.” This is covenant talk. The fact is Jesus was in the business of teaching the new covenant the whole time He was fulfilling His Father’s old covenant. The only thing left to do before he ascended into heaven was to issue its commandments, the commandments of blessing and cursing.
The fact is Jesus could not issue His commandments before the old covenant commandments were fulfilled. He fulfilled the old covenant by living His life by the standard for righteousness set by His Father in the old covenant law, and then dying as one guilty of transgressing each one. This selfless act cancelled out the old covenant and made way for a new covenant to be established, which Jesus did upon His resurrection.
In Acts 1, Jesus stands before the human race, as these eleven men are first of all, human beings. He says, I set before you this day blessings and cursings; he that keeps my commandments will dwell in my love but he that fails to keep my commandments will fail to dwell in my love. To fail to dwell in my love will be like a curse to all who fail to keep my commandments because all mankind was made for fellowship with me.
The first commandment is to wait for a baptism with the Holy Spirit. A baptism with anything is a temporary event, lasting just as long as the thing is saturated with whatever it is baptized with. Thus, in order to keep this commandment, the believer must be able to keep themselves in the state of baptized with the Spirit.
I like to use the word saturate because anything baptized in water is saturated with water. This saturation occurs as the gift of tongues pours out of the belly. Indeed, in John 7:37-39, Jesus says all who believe on me will have rivers of the Holy Spirit flowing out of their bellies. This is because to believe on Jesus is to believe on His resurrection from the dead with all power in heaven and earth, the same power and authority the Father had when He established the old covenant through Moses.
This is the reason the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of each believer in Jesus. Each believer has the ability to baptize themselves with the Holy Spirit at any time and in every place. All one must do is allow the Holy Spirit to flow out and the action of the Holy Spirit flowing through the whole being, spirit, soul, and body, saturates, or baptizes the believer. The act of doing this over and over again, keeps the believer in a constant state of saturation. Of course the Holy Spirit leaves the belly through the mouth and this is where the gift of tongues is manifest.
Those who live their lives saturated with the Holy Spirit, live their lives saturated with Jesus’ love because the Holy Spirit is on the earth in this present age to represent Jesus. But they also live their lives saturated with the all power in heaven and earth bestowed on Jesus by His Father when He raised Him from the dead. And they live their lives saturated with eternal life, the life of Jesus and His wisdom and grace and longsuffering and mercy and kindness and peace and His gentleness and His faith and His meekness and temperance and goodness. To stay saturated with the Holy Spirit is to stay saturated with Jesus.
It is this gospel we are called to preach. While it is true God’s grace brought Jesus to earth, leaving His home in glory where He enjoyed the beauty of heaven, to come to earth in all its fallen glory; and it is true grace is what caused Jesus to allow Himself to be birthed by a human mother and experience all the degradation of a human child and adolescent, and teenager. It was grace, God’s unmerited favor on fallen mankind, that caused Jesus to willingly submit Himself to the ridicule of the Roman soldiers and the torture of the cross; and it was grace that kept Him there until His body gave up the ghost.
The truth is we are saved from our sins by grace, the Father’s unmerited favor on a fallen world. Because of this salvation, the new covenant can gift all mankind with the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts but this is not the gospel Jesus calls us to preach in Acts 1. We receive eternal life through obedience. The salvation offered by the new covenant is light years ahead of the salvation offered by the old covenant but only salvation from sin is preached today. The Church as a whole doesn’t recognize the establishment of the new covenant.
Oh, of course, they try to assign the blessings of the new covenant to being saved from sin but no one can walk in new covenant blessings while disobeying new covenant commandments. And the principal commandment of the new covenant is interpreted by Church scholars not to apply to Christians!
Psalm 1 begins “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, or stands in the way of sinners, or sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Who is the Lord in this present age? It is Jesus! And where is His law found? Acts chapter one. Who are the scornful? The scornful are those who look at the commandments of the Lord and say, well, Christians don’t have to keep those commandments. Those who walk in the counsel of the ungodly are those who practice disobedience of Jesus’ commandments. Those who stand in the way of sinners are those who teach disobedience because they literally stand in the way of sinners coming to the truth.
It is those who delight in obedience of the Lord’s commandment who are like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season and his leaf does not wither. It is therefore no coincidence that Jesus said, all who believe on me will have rivers of Living Water pouring out of their hearts. Christians who delight in obedience of the Lord’s commandments are truly like a tree planted by rivers of water, whose roots go deep to drink up the goodness of Jesus found in the gift of tongues.
It is not enough to keep the law of the Lord as something that has to be done; the psalmist tells us we must delight in obedience. To delight means to take great pleasure. It is not enough to obey; we must take great pleasure in our obedience. It must be our great pleasure to obey our Lord’s commandments for it is by our obedience that Jesus takes great pleasure in us, showering us with His love. Obedience is about fellowship; it is what provides intimacy with our Lord.
Remember, the Holy Spirit is only on the earth today as a representative of Jesus. To have Him flowing through you and out of you is to be in direct contact with Jesus. It is as close a fellowship and camaraderie as we can have and the fruit of this relationship and fellowship is then manifest in our lives in many different ways.
We shouldn’t keep Jesus’ commandments because we have to; we should keep them because we want to. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” meaning, if we do not love Jesus, we should not keep His commandments. Jesus never commanded anyone to keep His commandments; He merely issued them to whosoever will. In Acts 1, He stood before all mankind and said, “I set before you this day blessing and cursing. Choose which you will serve.
Several months ago I did a Bible study on 1Corinthians 13. 1Corinthians 13 is usually studied as a standalone chapter but I have often wondered why it was sandwiched between two chapters that teach on the gift of tongues. Is the gift of tongues so destructive that believers need to be reminded of the gift of love, or, are we missing something? When I began to look at the first words of the chapter, I was reminded of 1John 5:2: “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments,” and I realized if God’s definition of love is obedience, 1Corinthians 13 has a whole different meaning.
The traditional interpretation of 1Corinthians 13 is that the chapter is talking about the natural human emotion, love, but if it is, the chapter is obviously placed out of context. I can think of three or four parts of the New Testament the chapter would be better suited for. If however, we use God’s definition of love, which is obedience, the chapter is perfectly placed, as illustrated by the first verse: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love (obedience), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling symbol.
Now the verse makes sense and its context is understandable. “Though you speak with tongues, if you have not love (obedience to Jesus’ commandment), you are merely making noise. Why did Paul say, “If we have hope for this life alone, we are of all men most pitied”? The gift of tongues has many wonderful uses in this life but its primary use is to gain eternal life. Eternal life can only be gained by obedience of Jesus’ commandments. It is only through waiting for a baptism with the Spirit regularly that eternal life can be gained.
As we read through the chapter we find a direct contradiction of the teachings of the modern Church, for Paul says: “Though I have all faith so that I could move mountains and have not love (obedience of Jesus’ commandments) I am nothing. Now Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us we are saved through faith but here Paul says if we have all faith and have not love, we are nothing, nowhere; because the whole point of this exercise is to live forever in heaven with God, and Hebrews 5:9 informs us eternal salvation is gained by obedience.
If eternal salvation is gained by obedience then the salvation of Ephesians 2:8-9 has to be salvation from sin and indeed Jesus died on the cross to deliver mankind from sin. However, the old covenant never promised eternal life and Jesus’ death on the cross cannot deliver more than the covenant promised, which is why Jesus went to heaven and established a new covenant. The new covenant has a different qualification for obtaining its salvation than the old covenant did. Again, Jesus said, “the only way for you to abide in my love, is to keep my commandments.”
Now as we go through the chapter of 1Corinthians 13, we get a fresh perspective of the chapter and we realize, though you give your life as a martyr or dedicate yourself to the ministry, if you don’t have obedience, you have nothing. The only thing that will not fail you is obedience because it is through obedience that you live out your life in covenant with God and God never fails. Love will fail you but obedience never will. In the end, these three, faith, hope, and obedience remains, but the greatest of these is obedience. It doesn’t matter how much faith you have or how great your hope is, your obedience is what will determine whether you abide in Jesus’ love or not, because God defines love as obedience.
You see, it was because of Jesus’ obedience of His Father’s commandments that we enjoy the salvation we have today. Thus when Jesus says: “Love one another as I have loved you,” He is speaking of His obedience to His Father’s commandments and how we should mimic Him by obeying His commandments. The only way for us to live out our lives in the provision of God in this life and the next is to live in obedience. Having been redeemed from the old covenant law through Jesus’ death, we don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments. Our righteousness is gained by faith but eternal life is gained by obedience of Jesus’ commandments.
The problem is 99% of theologians take the scriptures out of their context and once removed from context, the scriptures can be made to mean whatever you want them to. The interpretation is purely selective. But once the Word of God is given its proper context, the intended meaning comes into focus and subjective meanings go out. For instance, when Jesus says in order to abide in my love you must keep my commandments, all of Jesus’ commandments must be viewed in that context, otherwise we run the risk of failing to abide in His love. And today, this is what has happened.
When you can look around and find folks honestly trying to live for God and sincere in their faith, yet suffering under the hand of Satan: and let’s face it, “every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father,” which means every gift that is not good and perfect has another source: then folks are not keeping Jesus’ commandments and we must look to see where we are missing it. Instead, we live in a world where the evil is attributed to God and called good while any one with one eye and half their God given sense can see that it’s not good or God.
Can Jesus make all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose? Obviously the answer is yes, but those who love God should keep His commandments and dwell in His goodness and not need bad things worked to good. It is only when we fail to keep His commandments that we fail to receive His goodness and need things turned to our good.
Now let’s look at one obvious exception. When Paul and Silas were whipped and thrown into prison, was that a good gift that came down from the Father above? No, absolutely not. What did Paul and Silas do? They kept covenant with Jesus by praying and singing in tongues and Jesus’ goodness swiftly overtook them. Had Paul and Silas let their obedience lapse? I can’t say, but I can say, “He that keeps my commandments will abide in my love”. There were other times when evil sought to overtake Paul but it could not.
I know in my own life how easy it is to let my obedience lapse for a day or two and thank God for 1John 1:9 and 2:1. 2:1 states, “If any man sin,” because it is not expected. Jesus said, “my yoke is easy, my burden light,” because there are only three commandments to keep and it is easy to keep them but it is also easy to be distracted from obedience and if we sin in failing to keep Jesus’ commandments, all we need to do is repent and go back to obedience.
It is said that redemption is the central theme of the scriptures but Jesus redeemed mankind so that He could give mankind eternal life. According to Hebrews 5:9, He gives eternal salvation to those who are obedient. So although redemption may be the central theme of the old covenant and maybe the whole Old Testament, eternal life is the central theme of the New Testament and since Eternal life can only be gained by speaking in tongues, the gift of tongues is the central theme of the New Testament. However, in 1Corinthians 13:1, Paul says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not God’s definition of love, which is obedience, I am clanging brass or tinkling cymbal,” because it’s not about the gift of tongues, it’s about obedience. However, to delight in the law of the Lord is to delight in the gift of tongues. Ironically, it is the gift of tongues the Church seeks to avoid.
Any baptism is a temporary event. The believer is only baptized while immersed or saturated in or with the Holy Spirit. Since the original baptism occurred while the gift of tongues was pouring out of the mouth of the obedient, in order to keep Jesus’ commandment to wait for a baptism with the Holy Spirit, believers must wait for a baptism regularly. The word, keep, means to maintain a prescribed condition, in this case the condition of baptized, which means the gift of tongues must flow continuous. That which the Church avoids is the means to gain eternal life.
“Whom the Son sets free is free indeed” so there is no heavy load of shame and conviction for disobedience, only a quiet whispering and encouragement from the Holy Spirit to obey.