The Heaton File

By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:10-14)

He Offered One Sacrifice

The temple of Solomon was one of the wonders of the world. There was no place on earth as beautiful as the place where God came to dwell among men and to shine from the glistening marble of its edifice as the house of God. For many years the people of God had gathered around the tabernacle of meeting to worship but now the grandeur of the divine grace of the Lord stood as a memorial to the everlasting promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From the days of early man, sacrifice was a part of the ritual of worship. The offerings of Cain, Abel, Abraham and the sacrifices inscribed on the pages of the Law of Moses all pointed to the will of the Lord turning the heart of men to the one truth that would one day be found in Jesus Christ. When Solomon dedicated the temple he offered 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep as a sacrifice. An incredible amount of animals in one single dedication can only be overshadowed by the thousands and thousands of animals sacrificed over the centuries of time. The Lord alone knows the number of bulls and goats given to honor Him. Every sacrifice was an attempt by man to appease the wrath of God. Instructed by the Lord to offer sacrifices, there was a divine emptiness to the blood shed by animals to atone for the sins of man. Man was made in the image of the Creator and animals possess no eternal spirit. Killing an animal for a sacrifice was no different than killing an animal to eat. When a man killed another man he committed murder because man was made in the image of God. Shedding man’s blood is abomination to the Lord as the nature of man is eternal. Taking the life of an animal does not bear the same guilt. For centuries, in accordance with the will of God, animal sacrifices begged the mercy of God to remove His wrath in granting forgiveness to man. The totality of man’s guilt would never be appeased until one sacrifice was made and that sacrifice had to be a man – not an animal.

Sanctification came to man through one sacrifice. It was not a bull, goat, sheep or animal but the body of Jesus Christ, Son of the Most High. The sacrifice did not have to be repeated because the purity of the sacrifice was eternally established by the life of one man who did not commit one sin in His entire life. Consider the implications of one sin and the outcome for the salvation of man from the wrath of God if Jesus had failed in one sin. There would be no hope because the sacrifice would have been blemished, tainted, stained, and polluted. Under the Law of Moses, the priest offered repeatedly the same sacrifices which could never take away sins because man continued to sin. There was no purity to the sacrifice either as the animal was not an eternal creature or the sinfulness of man destroyed the holiness demanded by God. Jesus, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, took away the wrath of God through His perfect, sinless and completely holy life. One offering removed the stain of sin because there was no stain of sin in the life of one man.

Jesus lived for nearly thirty-three years and never – not once – disobeyed the will of the Father. He was tempted in every kind of manner available in the arsenal of Satan. Throughout His life, Jesus battled the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. At the beginning of His ministry, Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness and tried to derail His work of the Father. This was not the first time the two of them had met on the battlefield of moral courage. When Jesus came of age as a young man Satan threw his battery of evil in front of Him every opportunity the devil could find. Satan knew who the son of Joseph and Mary was and He knew that as a man the Lord would bear the marks of humanity in its frailty. Jesus overcame every temptation because He knew the one sacrifice of His life would cleanse all men of their sin. As the nails of the Roman executioner pierced His flesh, Jesus knew His final hour had come. He could see the angry crowd gathering around Him shouting and cursing Him. His eyes glanced to His mother standing with the disciples and saw the eternal love in her heart. As the soldiers crucified Him, Jesus knew this one sacrifice would bring all men to the Father. There would no longer be a need for animal sacrifice. The blood that He shed on that day on that cross outside the city where Solomon had sacrificed so many animals would be the propitiation of the sins of those who came to the cross for salvation. When He bowed His head in death, the love of God burst forth from the heart of one man crucified between two thieves that would give His life so that all men could be saved. One life. One sacrifice. One gift. One hope. One Lord. One offering.

Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.” (Numbers 15:37-41)

A Blue Thread For Remembrance

When God created man, he gave him a mind that would process incredible amounts of information and retain greater still the knowledge of a lifetime of activity. Embedded in the creation of the human brain was the limitation to retain things without a constant flow of things to refresh the mind of what he needed to know. It was within the power of God to create man with perfect memory and recall but that would take away his free will to choose and to decide his own course of life. Throughout the revelation of God’s word to all humanity He included many things as reminders of man’s need to devote himself to the will of the Father. Cain and Abel made sacrifices to the Lord as a pattern of remembrance to the law of God. The altars of Abraham insured his constant devotion to remember to trust in the Lord. When Moses gave the law to the people of Israel, it was filled with reminders for the people to walk holy and perfect before the Lord God. One of the prominent daily reminders in the law was to make tassels on the corners of their garments and to include a blue thread in the tassels of the corners to remind the people to obey all the commandments of the Lord and to do them. A simple blue cord would become a reminder for the people to walk in the paths of righteousness and truth. As the people went about their daily walks the blue cord would become a constant companion to remind them to think about holy things, speak about holy things and to carry out the will of the Lord in truthfulness and sincerity.

The first lesson is to see the importance of man thinking about God. There is a need for daily communion with the Lord as the activities of the day unfold. Worship is not something accomplished within the walls of a building on Sunday only. To show reverence for God there is daily participation with the word of God, the Spirit of the Lord and a fellowship of Christ. Everyone needs a reminder. The danger comes when men begin to busy their lives with things other than a focus on pleasing God. What the Lord was telling the children of Israel was to put the blue cord on their garments so they would have a daily reminder to know all of their blessings came from God. The Lord wanted His people to be thinking people about godly things and godly ways. When temptation came along they would see the blue cord and remember the word of God to reject the wiles of the devil. It was a positive reinforcement to walk more holy, speak more clearly and to fulfill the commands of the Lord. Dee Bowman said, “It is hard to sin when you are thinking about God.” A blue cord may be a piece of string but the implications are eternal.

In the church, there are blue cords that God has placed to remind man of his relationship with his Lord. Most prominent is the supper of the Lord when Jesus told His disciples to remember Him and to commune in the fellowship of His suffering and glory of His resurrection. The Lord’s Supper is a weekly reminder of what Christ has done. It has been placed in the church like a blue cord to refocus the mind of man to the blessings found in Christ. Assembling with the saints is a blue cord of fellowship to impress upon the hearts of God’s children they are family. This will show a need for one another in the communion of brotherly love. Singing together, offering prayers together and discussing the word of God all serve to remind man of his need for God and his need to exhort one another in the body of Christ. The Bible is a huge blue cord given to the child of God to remember all the commandments of the Lord and to do them. It serves as a warning not to follow the harlotry of the world. Reading the Bible implants a spiritual blue cord around the heart to remind the Christian what God has done for him and how the love of God gave up His only begotten Son to die for unworthy man. He is still the Lord God who brought us out of sin to be our God. He is still the Lord our God.

Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that is in his house. Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. (Colossians 4:15-16)

The Church And The Bible

There are sixty-six books in the Bible with thirty-nine found in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament. The first time the entire Bible was divided into chapters and verses appeared in the Geneva Bible of 1560. Over a period of 1600 years, forty men engaged in writing the book that would literally change the world. No book has had such an impact on the history of man. From the most ancient of the books written by Moses to the final words of John in the Revelation, the Bible represents the mind of God revealed to man to know the wisdom hidden since the beginning of time. Paul would proclaim he received by revelation the mystery which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as it was revealed by the Holy Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets. He exhorted the saints at Ephesus to read what he had written down so they could understand the mystery. Matthew, Mark, James the brother of Jesus and Jude wrote one book apiece, Luke wrote two historical documents to Theophilus as two epistles of Peter are all recorded in the Bible. John wrote a gospel of Jesus, three epistles and by divine instruction penned the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul was the most prolific writer of the New Testament canon as thirteen letters are ascribed to them with suggestions that he is the author of the Hebrew book. Peter confirmed in his second epistle the authors of Biblical prose did not follow cunningly devised fables but spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This establishes divine authority for the Bible as being the complete book of God’s word. The Lord gave the world sixty-six books as a complete set to unfold the mystery of the scheme of God’s redemption for the saving of man. There was no need for sixty-seven books or to lessen the number of books by one or more. The Holy Spirit preserved for the church the completed revelation of God’s will in perfect order, design, and purpose. Through the divine providential power of God’s glory, every human heart can read and understand the words of the Bible to find eternal life because that is necessary for God’s grace to be revealed to man. No more and no less.

When Paul wrote to the saints in Colosse he exhorts them to read his letter to the church for edification and instruction. Like his letters to the churches of Galatia, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Rome, Paul intended for his letters to serve as divine instruction to guide the church in their worship, organization, pattern and plan for evangelizing. Mixed with personal exhortations, doctrine, rebukes and instructions, Paul’s letter were testimonials to the will of God to serve the church in establishing the pattern as determined by the Holy Spirit. Paul also shows there were more than his thirteen letters that were written to the brethren. As he exhorts the church at Colosse to read his letter, he also wants them to read the letter from Laodicea. Colossae was less than ten miles east of Laodicea in the Lycus River Valley in ancient Phrygia, part of the Roman territory of Asia Minor.  The letter Paul refers to is not found in the Bible but it has great importance to Paul for the saints at Colosse to read. Laodicea will only be mentioned again in the Bible when John writes the Revelation of Jesus speaking to the seven churches of Asia including lukewarm Laodicea. The brethren at Colosse need to share his letter to them with the church at Laodicea and the church at Laodicea will share their letter with the Christians at Colosse.

A diligent student of scripture will find many books mentioned in the Old Testament that are not found in the Bible and other books mentioned in the New Testament not found in the Bible. Why are there only sixty-six books in the Bible? What happened to the other books and letters mentioned by Paul? The church of Christ has been given the fully revealed word of God in a complete and purposeful pattern. Paul would hint to the brethren at Corinth the day of miracles would come to an end when the completed revelation of God would be given to men. The question is often raised about the security of knowing if the Bible contains all the books of God. In fact, the Bible does not contain all the books of God but the books contained in the Bible are everything a man needs to understand the divine will of God. Why did the Holy Spirit not include the letter to Laodicea in the canon of the Bible? It was not needed. God did not preserve every letter penned by Paul or the early disciples. Knowing the prolific writing power of Paul it would seem impossible to think the apostle would limit himself to write less than twenty letters. What is retained in the Bible is everything a man needs to know – nothing more and certainly nothing less. The Bible is an amazing book that a lifetime cannot reveal all the mysteries. Critics may complain about lost books of the Bible and religious leaders will convince people to deny certain books of the Bible (many do not believe James should be in the Bible). When the dust of man’s failed wisdom settles there are sixty-six books in the Bible because God chose those books to reveal His mind to man. Whatever the letter to Laodicea had to say was not going to improve on the message of salvation. Thank God he gave us what He did. Let our hearts turn to those pages and if we are able to fully grasp every morsel of knowledge from those sixty-six books then maybe God will reveal a final message. But first, try to learn everything out of the first sixty-six and you will find you do not have enough years if you spend a millennia searching.

“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. And lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.

“I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.

“I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.

“I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.

“I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.

Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth — the Lord God of hosts is His name. (Amos 4:6-13)

Man Is A Stubborn Creature

Sin can make a person very stubborn. In almost a spiral death dive without any hope of coming out alive, the allurement of sin will make people do the most unlikely, unreasonable and unbelievable things. An animal will learn with repeated chastisement to change a certain behavior conforming to the wishes of the master. Many wild animals can be trained to become domesticated through a series of continual character modifications. The highest of all animals and one made in the image of the Creator has a tenacious ability to refuse to change even when faced with repeated punishments. No one more clearly demonstrates this failed trait in man than the nation of Israel. Brought forth by the grace of God and created through the mercy of a loving Father, Israel had more than any nation on earth to be thankful for and had been promised by the Lord of Hosts to be cared for and protected by divine will. Clearly, in the Law of Moses, the blessings of God’s eternal glory would rest upon Israel as long as they were obedient to His will. When Israel would stray from the course of divine truth the Lord would gently chastise them and show them how to return to Him. The early days of the conquest of Canaan were pivotal days of the judges where Israel would serve the Lord for a time before falling into the ways of the people around them and bring the wrath of God. They would be oppressed for a time and the Lord would deliver them and the cycle would continue for years to come. There was no king in the land and everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes. The period of the united kingdom under Saul, David and Solomon brought great peace and prosperity. There would be times the chastisement of God would bring sorrow to the people but they would heed the word and return to the Lord. Following the death of Solomon, the kingdom fell into civil war. Nothing would be the same for Israel as it began to implode on itself in the wickedness of the nations around them.

Amos was not a common prophet of his day but a man fierce in his devotion to God and fiery message of repentance. He grew up hard and lived a hard life. His view of God’s judgment was the severity of a loving God who would not tolerate the hardened hearts of a rebellious people. The longsuffering of the Lord is always given to man to give him time to repent and come back to a rightful place with God. In Israel’s case, the Lord had repeatedly brought tragedies against the nation to shake them from their hardened hearts bent on following the path of wickedness. The land had suffered famine as a means to bring them back to God but they refused to obey Him. He withheld the rain from the land bringing a great drought destroying crops and making life unbearable and still the people refused to change their hearts. The people could see the hand of God working in the rain as it would rain in one place but not another and there was never enough rain. No matter how hard the drought man refused to repent. The Lord blasted the crops with blight and mildew leaving little or nothing to harvest and yet the people still would not turn their hearts to righteousness. When the law was given to the people at Sinai they were vividly reminded that if they transgressed the word of God the same plagues befalling Egypt would come upon them. Because of their wickedness, the Lord fulfilled that promise and sent among them the plague after the manner of Egypt. He killed their sons and destroyed their armies and still this did not turn the heart of the people back to God. Finally, the Lord brought devastation against the people like He did when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with brimstone and fire. In all of this, the heart of the people remained stubborn and rebellious to repent. If they had experienced calamity before they would feel the full wrath of God when He brings the might of the Assyrian and Babylonian nations against them.

Sin is a cruel master who subdues the heart to repel the fierce punishment of God. The chastening of the Lord is purposeful and designed to change the hearts of sinful man to receive the grace of a loving Father yet men refuse to acknowledge God and to follow His word. It is difficult to say how the chastening of the Lord works in the lives of men today but the reality of His hand in the affairs of the nations and lives of His people demonstrate the will of the Father is still being exercised to bring men to Him. The remarkable story is how often men will refuse to return to the Lord. Natural calamities happen to all men, injustices abound in the affairs of men and the judgments of God are still being exercised to show the glory of a loving Father who is trying to bring all men to know Him. Yet they have not returned to the Lord and how sad this will be in the end. The great tragedy of the judgment of God is to hear how often the Lord chastened man and how often He was rejected. Israel and Judah would realize the words of Amos rang true that God had given them ample warnings and many opportunities to repent but they refused. There were no excuses. The Lord continues to give man warnings to repent and as often as he refuses he brings judgment to himself as a stubborn and rebellious creature. Sin will take you farther than you want to go and make your heart turn away from God to the point there can be no hope. Prepare to meet your God is all that is left to say.

These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:14-15)

Four Views Of The Church

Jesus promised to build His church and through His sacrifice purchased the family of God through His love. There has never been an institution among men as majestic as the church of Christ. It was formulated before the worlds were created, fulfilled through the providential power of God and established by the diligent work of the early disciples who believed with all their hearts Jesus was the Son of God raised on the third day to sit at the right hand of the Father. The church is called many things throughout scripture. Paul outlines four distinct characteristics of the church that are vital to realizing the importance of the church to all men. First, he calls the church a house of God. Every home is built upon the inspired plan of the Lord in creation. Adam and Eve began the first home and children were born. The home is the first institution of God established to bring harmony, peace, love, and companionship to man. The church accomplishes the same purpose as the home when it brings a harmonious relationship between the Father and His children and the children to learn to live in peace with one another. When God created Adam He said it was not good for man to be alone. The church was created to fill the needs of man both in his need for God and his need for others. As a family or house of God man finds fulfillment in the fellowship of brotherly love one for another.

The church is the dwelling place of the living God. In a world giving over the idolatry, the church was a place where God was alive and powerful. The wood and marble totems of man’s wisdom had no place in the church where the Creator of the world lived. All the saints of God serve a Lord that was before time and spans the eons of man’s history unchanged in His character. Dead gods change with the whims of men. The church is a dwelling place of God in the Spirit built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets where the Christian makes up the spiritual stones of its holy temple. It is a place where people are alive in the Spirit sharing together in the unified purpose of the Christ who was dead but rose to life without end. The glory of the church is not the ornate buildings of men but the broken and contrite hearts of worshippers who serve a living and powerful God.

Ancient temples boasted many pillars that supported their grand design. In the city of Ephesus, the temple of Diana had 107 pillars at a height of sixty feet supporting its roof. Paul used the imagery of the church to be the pillar of the truth as the place where all truth is found and shared with men. The church is not just a meeting place but a representation of where all truth springs forth in a community to let the world know the good news of Jesus Christ. Truth must be the watchword of the church. When the body of Christ allows the doctrines of men to challenge the authority of scripture, apostasy destroys the purpose and design of the church. The single authority of the church of Christ is the word of God. In every place, the church is found the beacon of light shines forth as the only true light because Christ is the only true Lord and God is the only true God. The life of each Christian is a representation of that truth. Preachers must teach only the word of God and the pastors or shepherds of the congregation must know the word to teach the word to be guided by the word. Truth is the foundation of the church and if the truth is to be revealed to the world it will be accomplished by the church.

Finally, Paul describes the church as the ground of truth. Jesus taught that only when a man builds upon the rock of truth will he be able to withstand the fierce storms of life. Such is the work of the church to build their doctrine, organization, worship, and purpose on the ground of truth. As the church is built on the ground of truth it becomes the measure of truth in the world. Standards are necessary in the business world to verify how long a product is or how much it weighs. Without these standards, there would be chaos. The world does not recognize a single standard of truth in the church. When Jesus told the eleven that all authority had been given to Him by the Father He confirmed there was one source of authority. That measure of righteousness would be fulfilled through the church. As the ground of truth, the church represents what all men must measure truth by. The church must be grounded in the teachings of God. Truth is fixed and permanent unchanged by the wisdom of man. The church must be built upon the truth that is Jesus Christ so that all men can see the one true foundation of right. Any other foundation is sand and will pass away.

The church is the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar of truth and the ground of truth. Glory to God for His infinite wisdom in establishing the church of Christ to be the body of the saved and glory of the risen Christ.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works. No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. (Psalm 33:10-17)

God Among The Nations

At present, there are nearly two hundred nations in the world. Each one of the nations is represented by sovereignty distinct to geography, culture, and ideology. From the beginning of the nations at the tower of Babel in the plain of Shinar, men have segregated into communities by language and through the centuries the rise and fall of nations show the continual flow of ideas that shape world affairs. Great empires have arisen like dynasties of the Egyptians, Chinese and Romans. Despots have tried to force their will on other nations bringing the world to war as the Germans and Japanese exemplified in recent history. God has used mighty nations to carve His will upon the people of Israel like Assyria and Babylon. Through prophecy, the Lord revealed the rise of the Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires who would bring about His will to usher into the world the Son of God. The apostle Paul wrote of the fullness of time when the Christ would come and this was fashioned through the will of the Lord and the Roman Empire. In everything, history has shown the hand of God performing divine will upon the hearts of men through the nations. The Bible reveals the purpose of God’s will and shows the counsel of the Lord directs the blessings and curses that befall any nation. Hitler’s Third Reich did not fall because of the might of the Allied armies but through the divine will of the Father. Japan was not defeated through the wisdom of human might and power but the eternal counsel of the Creator. The Lord used the forces of men to perform His work in destroying the godless nations that seek to dominate the world. He will continue to bring His counsel to bear upon all the nations that deny the Lord. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and for those nations who turn against the Lord, He will punish. History will prove the providence of God among the nations.

The problem of man is that he thinks he is his own god. Great armies are established with sophisticated technology to defeat the enemy and through great wisdom on the part of the man he believes he can rule the world. Nothing is further from the truth. Great nations exist not through the might of man but the will of God. In the days of the psalmist, an army was as powerful as the courage of the king, the strength of his army and the number of his horses. Even then it meant nothing to the Lord. One angel killed 185,000 soldiers in one night because it was the will of the Lord. Israel often faced insurmountable odds against greater armies and defeated them because the Lord was on their side. Gideon overpowered an army of Midianites that were unnumbered with only three hundred men. The Lord looks down from heaven and determines the destiny of nations because he is the Lord God Creator. Nothing man can invent, create or bring to bear against their enemies will have any power without the will of the Lord. The size of the army will not matter. Designing powerful weapons of mass destruction will be of no use. Filling the horizon with armor, ships, planes, and missiles mean absolutely nothing to God. A dust storm will render useless the technology of man as well as a storm at sea will sink the mightiest battleship. A man believes he is his own god in the department of war and makes himself a fool in the eyes of God.

When the heart of man turns away from God and begins to believe that he alone is god the nation will soon destroy itself. A nation is blessed when it believes in God but when a nation turns away from God there is an impending doom that waits over the horizon. Sadly the annals of history are littered with nations who once believed in the Lord God and filled their counsels with the dregs of human wisdom bringing nothing but misery, heartache, and destruction. There are clear warnings for the United States of America who once proclaimed they were a nation “under God” that the further they deny God the closer He comes to taking away their blessings. The Lord looks down from heaven and He sees the affairs of America and He considers all their works. No nation has stood the test of time that rejects God. The Bible proves it and the pages of history illustrate it. Ironically, the smartest thing man can do is to look into the past to see how all the nations that denied God turned out and then examine the present course of affairs to see where this nation is headed. There will be nothing to stop the chastisement of God upon any nation that denies Him – including America. The eye of the Lord is upon those who fear Him who look for a country that is not of this world. Citizens of heaven look to a promised land yet revealed. Fearing the Lord will bring peace, happiness and the comforting knowledge that God rules and reigns in the affairs of all men to perform His will and His might.

Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. And the period that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years he reigned in Hebron, and thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem. So he died in a good old age, full of days and riches and honor; and Solomon his son reigned in his place. (1 Chronicles 29:26-28)

He Died In Honor

David the son of Jesse is one of the most influential men of the Bible. As a shepherd boy, he changed the face of a nation when he stood before the Philistine giant and gave victory to the people of God. He would be chosen above all men to take the place of Saul as king of Israel and reign forty years as a noble and good king. His writings remain among the most treasured of scripture and his courage as the hallmark of ageless warriors of God who fight against the wiles of the devil. David was a frail man in spirit as evident with his sin with Bathsheba but in the darkness of his failure, he arose as a man of faith who accepted the chastisement of the Lord and honored the favor of forgiveness. His legacy would be highlighted by the lineage that would bring Christ into the world to save all men. Jesus would sit upon the spiritual throne of David to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Few men attain the prominence of character, faith, resolve and complete devotion to God as David but he does not walk alone. There are many unnamed men and women who follow in the steps of the shepherd boy who believe that Jehovah God is their shepherd, protector, and provider. Like David, they stand in the valley of Elah and face insurmountable odds and through the courage to trust in the power of God gain the victory. The life of David is an examination of the nature of sin and how easily the king of Israel was persuaded to commit adultery, deceit, and murder. When Nathan came to David he did not deny his culpability but like a man of God confessed his sin with deep remorse. His life would be forever changed by his sin but he remained a faithful man of God who looked for a city without foundation whose builder and maker was God. There are many books written of the son of Jesse filled with applications, lessons, and truths all men face. The Holy Spirit finishes the story of His servant by a simple declaration that David died at a good old age, full of days and riches and honor.

Accolades have a lot to say about the manner of life a person leaves for others to follow. Not everyone is able to attain a good old age and to live those days as fully as David. He had many tales to share with his life as a shepherd, warrior, husband, father, and leader of the nation of God.  Many of his life lessons were notable while some were not so honorable. He was able to attain some wealth in life. Earthly riches are not evil but the desire to trust in them is what destroys the soul of man. David understood the fleeting value of material things. By the grace of God he lived a long life and died full of days. One thing that is said of David that is above all others is that he died in honor and with honor. The name of David is held throughout the generations of men as a name filled with the integrity of a godly man. Many sons are named after the king of Israel because it represents a name of veracity and righteousness. Riches were a blessing but they were left to others. Living a long life full of days is the desire of all men but this also will pass into the shadows of death. Honor is something that lives on with the name of the man spoken for generations. David was a man who lived with honor and died with honor. The single element of his character was the trust he had for his name. Whenever the name of David is spoken it will always be associated with great feats of courage, battles of faith, failures of the flesh, a broken spirit over sin and an undying trust in the mercy and grace of God. The riches of David have disappeared and the bones of his earthly tabernacle have vanished in the dust of time but the honor of his name and his character live on.

Man can be a proud creature. He can strive for all the glories of life to be accepted by men as valuable, influential and historical. Sadly he will waste his life attaining all the things that at the end of life are dust covered, rusting and fading into past memories that no one remembers. The one thing he should have kept as the most important is to die with honor. Not the honor of men who will soon forget but the honor of being a man of God who trusted in the Lord loved the mercy of God and served the only true King. Death is the final separator of man’s dreams and his realities. Most men live long lives full of their dreams to be remembered by other men dying with a moment’s folly of vanishing recognition. Soon forgotten through the annals of time the futile lives of great men fade to nothing but names on a register or placed on marble in fields of green. David died with honor before the Lord God and his name is inscribed in the book of life. There is nothing man can do about death as it will come to all men. Some will live long lives. Many will say they lived full lives. A minority will die wealthy men full of riches. Few men die with the honor of a holy God who saw in their lives His love. David left an example for all men to serve God and Him alone so that in death honor will be given by the voice of the Almighty who declares, “Good and faithful servant. Enter in.” How you die is how you live. Seek the honor of the Lord God and He will bless you with an eternal home: everlasting honor singing praises around His throne.

Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17)

Where Is Their God

The nation of Israel was the most powerful of all the nations of the world in their zenith. Called the apple of His eye, the Lord looked over His people with great care and providential protection to bless them with all the storehouses of His heavenly glory. No one could stand before the might of the army of Israel as the power of God gave them victories over all their enemies. The nations surrounding Israel feared the God of the Hebrews for centuries because of the stories of how the people had defied Egypt and the army of Pharaoh. Long before the nation arrived in Canaan, the fear of Israel had spread among the people of Jericho and surrounding cities as told by Rahab, the harlot. Throughout the rise of Israel, God’s power was seen as the might and force of wrath upon those who opposed this nation. When Solomon solidified the nation as one great body of the chosen people of the Lord God, no nation would dare raise their hand against them. Following the death of Solomon, the united nation of Israel fell into civil unrest and divided among the tribes as evil kings used their power to lead the people into the practice of idolatry and immorality. For the northern ten tribes, there would never be an escape. God’s wrath would utterly destroy them under the might of the Assyrians. The remaining two tribes of Judah and Benjamin would remain for many years after the fall of Samaria but would find themselves under the yoke of the Babylonian masters in 586 B.C. Prophets like Joel pleaded with the people to turn back to the Lord and seek the mercy of a benevolent God but the people refused. When the Temple of Solomon was destroyed the world knew the God of Israel had forsaken His own people to the might of the Babylonians.

The real tragedy of the destruction of the Temple and the defeat of Israel was the image left upon the hearts of the nations around them. Wars were fought among peoples based upon the power of their gods. One nation would oppose another nation as a conflict between the gods of the attacking army and the gods of the defending army. When victory was gained, the conclusion was the victorious army’s god was greater than any other. When Assyria and Babylon defeated Israel it was a victory in the minds of the pagan kings of their god being more powerful than the God of Israel. When the Babylonians entered the Temple of Solomon and walked into the Holy of Holies unharmed it was a clear message to the nation of Israel that God had forsaken them to the whims of the pagan Gentiles. The prophets had repeatedly told the people the Lord would allow this to happen if they did not repent. What the Assyrians and Babylonians did not know is that Jehovah God allowed them to destroy His people and the Lord kept a remnant alive as He had promised through the Babylonian captivity. The greatest shame the rebellious people of Israel did was to bring reproach against the name of the one true God, Jehovah, Lord and Creator of all things. The invading armies would ask, “Where is their God?” when they were slaughtering the people of Israel. Because of the willful rebellion of the people, the name of God was being blasphemed among the nations. Jehovah was being ridiculed for lacking power. The Babylonians believed their gods were greater than the God of Israel. They were mistaken of course because the power of God allowed them to take Israel captive but the message was clear. The people of God abandoned their faith and the people of the world saw no glory in their God.

Jesus Christ came to earth and gave His life to create in His body, the church, a people that would glorify, honor, praise and worship the Father. The power of God has been promised to all His people who believe in Him and fill their lives with His beauty, wisdom, and grace. One of the greatest dangers to the church is the insincere lives of His people who deny the power of God in their daily walk allowing the world to question why they would serve a God who has abandoned them. What the world does not know or appreciate is that God has not failed the child but the child has turned away from the Father. The life of too many Christians leaves the impression on others that God is not real, He does not save and He does not care about them. Looking at the lives of many saints, this would be the only conclusion. Why would anyone want to become a Christian and live such a miserable existence as those who proclaim to be children of God and have no joy? The world asks, “Where is their God?” The nations around Israel wanted to see how powerful God was in the lives of the Israelites and found nothing. What does the world see in the hearts of those who profess Jesus Christ? When the heart is void and empty of God’s grace the world will see the same void and deny God. The Lord must be working and active in the hearts of His people so the world can see the power of God changing lives. Unchanged lives declare God is dead. The trumpet of repentance must be heralded in the hearts of the church to be alive in Christ and serve the Lord God with devotion and love so the people of the world can know how God changes lives. Where is God in your life?

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way. Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. (Luke 4:28-31)

They Thrust Jesus Out Of The City

The city of Nazareth was a place of insignificance bearing a reputation of obscurity by the words of Nathaniel who thought nothing good could come from such a city. For nearly twenty-five years the family of Joseph and Mary raised their children in a town filled with carpenters. Jesus grew up in Nazareth along with his half-brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas along with His half-sisters. For the people of this small Galilean town, the family of Joseph and Mary were model citizens who were not unlike the common people of the region who worked hard and scraped out a living in a harsh land. There was nothing unusual about the family of Jesus with the exception that He was a very bright and well-mannered young man. It was not unusual to see Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth reading from the text and discussing the Law with the teachers. At the age of thirty, the son of Nazareth began taking on the role of an itinerant teacher who quickly began to gather followers around Him. His fame began to spread through Israel with the authority of His teaching and something His fellow citizens of Nazareth had never seen before: miracles. Returning to His home, Jesus comes to Nazareth and as was His custom in the past, takes up the reading in the synagogue. After He closed the reading of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus declared to His fellow citizens that He was the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah. The people marveled at the gracious manner of the boy they knew as Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary. Jesus goes on to explain that He was the fulfillment of the text and that while they may have desired miracles to prove He was the Christ He would not because of the hardness of their hearts. Angered by the accusation against them, everyone in the synagogue grabbed Jesus and dragged Him out of the city to kill him. They pushed, shoved, kicked and thrust Him out of the city in their anger with the purpose of taking Him to the brow of the city to throw Him to His death. The manner of their taking Jesus was violent. There was no gentleness in their actions and no love in their hearts. They were filled with such anger and hatred they were guided by the mob mentality enraged by a blood thirst for death. As they approached the brow of the hill to cast Him down, Jesus passed through their midst and went His way. It was not His time to die and no man could take the life of Jesus before His hour.

Looking at the scene in the synagogue in the first moments when Jesus stands before the people and reads from Isaiah is a remarkable time of clarity. He speaks of the spirit of the Lord being upon Him to preach the gospel to the poor and to heal the brokenhearted. The prophet proclaims the Christ will proclaim liberty to the captives and recover the sight of the blind. He would set at liberty the oppressed and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. The carpenter’s son declares the prophecy is fulfilled but the hearts of the people of Nazareth could only see a man who was nothing more than a carpenter’s son. When Jesus rebukes their unbelief they immediately are enraged against Him. They do not shout at Him or shake their fists at him in derision. The people are so filled with hatred and contempt they decided as a mob to kill this man. What they did not know is that when they put their hands on Jesus and violently thrust Him out of the city, He had the power to call twelve-legions of angels to defend Him and destroy every soul in Nazareth. Jesus could have called down fire from heaven or commanded the earth to open up and swallow alive all those who manhandled Him. The Father watched as they brutally shoved His Son out of the city and He did nothing. Jesus Christ, Son of God did nothing until it was time. He released Himself from the grasp of the brutes that held him and walked through the midst of them and went His way to Capernaum. Thank God for the patience and love of Jesus to do nothing until His time.

There were a number of times in the short ministry of Jesus that people wanted to kill Him and they would not succeed until it was His hour. He was mistreated by many people on the road to the cross and yet He did nothing. The journey from the synagogue to the brow of the hill would take a little time and be filled with violence. Jesus did nothing. The people were so filled with hatred they could not see the love Jesus had for them. He grew up among them and they knew Him to be a man who never caused any troubles, problems, and disrespect to His fellow man. They had no cause to treat Jesus with anything but respect, honor, and concern but their hearts were filled with the wickedness of sin and they wanted to kill one of their own. When the gospel began to spread throughout the region of Galilee the unanswered question is how many of those who desired to thrust Jesus to His death on the brow of the hill overlooking Nazareth came to believe in the death of the man from Nazareth as the Christ. Would they be thankful the Son of God did nothing that day until His hour had come? They thrust Him out of the city but Jesus would wait until the day He was taken out of Jerusalem to die for all those in Nazareth. What a day of rejoicing that would be for those in Nazareth who believed that Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, the carpenter’s son, was, in fact, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God.

You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. (Deuteronomy 14:22-23)

The Purpose Of Tithing

There is always a reason and a purpose for the law of God. What may seem trivial laws to man are very important to show the willingness of men to obey the word of the Lord or follow their own precepts. The struggle with sin is deciding whom to fear. From the beginning of time, the Lord has placed before humanity the ability to choose whom they will serve and more often than not man has looked to his own wisdom and rejected the will of God. Under the Law of Moses, the Lord demanded one-tenth of everything the child of God possessed. While tithing is highlighted in the Law of Moses it was custom as ancient as the days when Abraham gave Melchizedek king of Salem a tithe of all he had. The Mosaic law required the people to tithe in three places: the seed of the land (crops), the fruit of the trees (oil and wine) and the herd or the flock. In separating the herds and flocks, the Lord required every tenth animal without the man regarding the animal in any way. He could not choose which animal to give to the Lord. If he tried to give the Lord a different animal than the one counted under the number as the tenth, both animals would be consecrated to the Lord. The law of tithing was not a trivial law instituted by God to obligate the people to a bureaucratic system of commandment keeping. Requiring the people to give a tenth of their crops, fruits, and animals to the Lord was purposed to teach the people to fear the Lord their God and understand all their blessings came from Him and Him alone. The Lord taught the nation of Israel that He owned everything in the world and He had need of nothing, yet this same Lord demanded the people offer to Him one-tenth of their possessions to instill in their hearts love and devotion to His benevolent care for them.

Man is a fickle creature that can easily fall prey to the covetousness inclinations of hoarding worthless things for his own pleasure. Wars have been fought as men take from others possessions of bounty, loot, and treasures. One of the major reasons for crime stems from the desire to take things from others so that a man can live in splendor, opulence and possess all the gold in the world. Greed will fill the heart of the ungodly who worship the power of money. The Scrooge mentality of hoarding an inheritance of things drives men to waste their lives in the self-indulgence of earthly possessions. Under the Law of Moses, the Israelites were required without recourse to deliver one-tenth of their possessions to the Lord God or suffer the consequences. It would be hard for a man to give unto a God he could not see possessions he knew his God did not need. The lesson was not in the tenth animal or the tenth produce; what God intended to show the people was not to trust in the fleeting treasures of this world but to trust in the power of His will to care and provide for them. Asking a man to give a tenth of what he owns is the litmus test of fidelity. The law exacted a heavy toll on the produce of the people but the greater lesson was to teach the people to fear the Lord their God always. There is special emphasis on the last part of the admonition: this lesson was to be before them always.

Tithing was a regulatory part of the Law of Moses and when Christ abolished the Law of Moses the requirement of tithing was also abolished. God does not require a man to tithe today. Under the covenant of Christ, returning to the Lord a portion of man’s goods is still required and commanded through the law of free will giving as one lays by in store on the first day of the week. What has not changed is the purpose of the law. Under the Law of Moses, the portion of giving was specified as one-tenth. In the New Testament church giving is based upon the heart of the individual. The one thing that has not changed is the purpose: men learn to fear the Lord when they give on the first day of the week. It would be easy for the Lord to declare that all men give a tenth because then the compulsion would be laid out and no questions of loyalty would be given. However, a greater test now lies before the heart of the child of God because the Lord leaves it up to the individual to determine the amount he gives. The amount one gives is based upon how much a man fears the Lord God always. Often the question is given how much should a person give in the age of the church. The answer is not a numerical figure but a condition of the heart. It is evident by contribution numbers in many churches today that few saints give even one-tenth of their possessions. This comes from too many of God’s people squandering their lives in perpetual debt and offering to the Lord pennies on the dollar when it comes time to give. What many fail to see is their giving is in proportion to their heart. The Lord’s work is hindered because the hearts of the brethren are fearful of not having enough stuff to fill their barns than the fear of the Lord. Tithing was not given to Israel so God could fill His coffers with grain, oil, and sheep. He tested the hearts of the people and their giving one-tenth taught them to fear him. Now the Lord allows the heart of His church to show how much they fear him. Ask yourself this question: how much do you fear the Lord always?