LETTING GOD GET ON WITH HIS ORIGINAL PLAN
MF Blume
October 9, 2011
Last week we discussed dividing soul from
spirit by the WORD.
Preached word explains things that salvation accomplished so well that
it eradicates unbelief from us.
Leviticus 1:6-9 MKJV And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut
it
into its pieces. (7) And the sons of Aaron the priest shall
put fire
on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. (8) And
the
priests, Aaron's sons, shall arrange the parts with the head and the
fat on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. (9) But
its inward
parts (HEART) and its legs (OUR WALK) he shall wash in water. And the
priest shall burn all on the altar, a burnt sacrifice, an offering made
by fire, of a sweet savor to Jehovah.
Does everyone follow this thought that the SOUL is where our emotions
are located, and people’s emotions can affect them so strongly
that
their spiritual aspect is affected?
- They cannot pray due to being so overwhelmed
with emotions.
- The intellect is also part of the soul.
- They cannot believe with their spirits
because their intellect cannot figure out how God could do what they
need done.
God wants to cut away all unbelief from our hearts.
- He wants to separate our souls from our
spirits as well.
ANY GRAIN OF THOUGHT that says we have to do
certain good deeds in this world to be GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOD is enough to
KEEP US OUT.
- Any grain of thought that we are not good
enough stops us short.
- If that is the problem most have, and we all
can see it, then we need to make it our goal to focus on getting these
truths that say otherwise into our hearts FIRMLY.
- The problem is that OUR CONSCIENCES need to
be convinced that we are PURGED COMPLETELY, or they will not let us
enter.
- The word will speak and speak and speak
until it soaks into our very consciences, and when it is there, the
hesitation problem is solved.
- This understanding then becomes a part of
you.
- The way your conscience looks at things is
basically part of your nature.
- So when our consciences are purged, then it
will be our NATURE to believe strongly.
- When we completely understand the whole
world of the CROSS, we will have such a boldness and confidence, that
we will never be stopped from entering this GARDEN STATUS WITH GOD.
- Satan can hurl all sorts of fiery darts of
lies about how bad we are but we know the truth too well for him to get
off with them.
- The book of Hebrews begins speaking about
the CONSCIENCE partway through the book, and how this must be dealt
with in order to enter the REST.
- We will begin to realize that the problem is
that our consciences might not be educated enough since we never
properly learned about everything the work of the cross accomplished
for us.
- We did not spend enough time getting these
truths in us.
- Learning about truth concerning salvation is
so important in order for us in order to see the blood of Jesus deal
with our very CONSCIENCES.
- Learn this until it purges your conscience.
- If your conscience is unsettled, you could
have all you need for rest and victory, but you will be defeated and
unable to REST.
- As in Romans 6, where Paul asked the readers
if they never KNEW baptism into Jesus was baptism INTO HIS DEATH.
- All this glorious position in Jesus can be
true of a person, yet if they are not TAUGHT it, they can remain
defeated.
- And when you really study and
“get” the message of Romans 6, the WORD slices into your
heart and CUTS AWAY UNBELIEF.
- It endows you with FAITH!
- When you learn you were crucified with
Jesus, so you can say you died, and you learn that ANYONE WHO IS DEAD
IS FREED FROM SIN, you explode in faith and THAT PUTS YOU IN THE FRAME
OF MIND AND REST where you should be.
Now, Romans 6:3 says this is only true for as many of us who have been
baptized into Jesus.
Romans 6:3 MKJV Do you not know that as many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?
DEATH FREES YOU FROM SIN.
Romans 6:6-7 MKJV knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with Him
in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we
should not serve sin. (7) For he who died has been
justified from sin.
When our consciences are marred and evil, we think we have not walked
enough old ladies across the street for us to be holy enough to see God.
- But our good works can never cut it with God.
- Law was full of works encouraging people to
please God so that people would realize works do not work.
- God actually gave them works and encouraged
them to please Him by them, in order to show that works DO NOT WORK.
- It is because God knows we cannot make
ourselves good enough in any way, shape or form.
Here are the scriptures that teach this:
Romans 3:20 MKJV because by the works of the Law none of all
flesh
will be justified in His sight; for through the Law is the knowledge of
sin. (THAT IS ONE OF THE GREAT PURPOSES OF LAW)
Galatians 2:16 MKJV knowing that a man is not justified by works
of
the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ; even we believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith in Christ, and not by
works of the Law. For all flesh will not be justified by works of law.
Galatians 3:10-13 MKJV For as many as are out of works of the
Law,
these are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who
does not continue in all things which are written in the Book of the
Law, to do them." (11) But that no one is justified by the
Law in the
sight of God is clear, for, "The just shall live by faith."
(12) But
the Law is not of faith; but, "The man who does these things shall live
in them." (13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
Law, being
made a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone having been
hanged on a tree");
Galatians 5:4 MKJV you who are justified by Law are deprived of
all effect from Christ; you fell from grace.
ONLY ONE THING WILL GIVE YOU THE CONFIDENCE THAT YOU NEED TO HOLD ONTO
TO UNTIL THE END…. REVELATION OF THE CROSS’ FINISHED WORK.
If you hesitate and think you’re not good enough, tell yourself
you did
not yet receive a revelation of the finished work of the cross.
We have now skipped ahead to Hebrews 9.
- Catch the drift of how OLD COVENANT
CEREMONIES only ever touched the FLESH – the OUTWARD – and
could never PURGE THE CONSCIENCE.
Hebrews 8:7-9:10 MKJV For if that first covenant had been without
fault, then no place would have been sought for the second.
(8) For
finding fault with them, He said to them, "Behold, days are coming,
says the Lord, and I will make an end on the house of Israel and on the
house of Judah; a new covenant shall be, (9) not according
to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took hold of their
hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt," because they did not
continue in My covenant, and I did not regard them, says the
Lord.
(10) "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My Laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people. (11) And they shall not each man teach
his
neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all
shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. (12) For I
will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
I will remember no more." (13) In that He says, A new
covenant, He
has made the first one old. Now that which decays and becomes old is
ready to vanish away.
Notice he begins saying there is a fault with the OLD COVENANT.
- We are going to find out what that fault is.
9b… because they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not
regard them, says the Lord.
- They could not CONTINUE in that covenant.
Hebrews 8:9 MSG I'll throw out the old plan I set up with their
ancestors when I led them by the hand out of Egypt. They didn't keep
their part of the bargain, so I looked away and let it go.
That was the problem.
- When we are given laws to keep in order to
be righteous and fail to keep them, we cannot do so.
- A covenant with just a set of laws to keep,
without an added something special, will not cut it with us.
Look what the new covenant has in it that the old covenant DID NOT HAVE.
Hebrews 8:10-12 MSG This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't
going
to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; This time
I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their
hearts. I'll be their God, they'll be my people. (11) They
won't go
to school to learn about me, or buy a book called God in Five Easy
Lessons. They'll all get to know me firsthand, the little and the big,
the small and the great. (12) They'll get to know me by
being kindly
forgiven, with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.
Now, if the first had FAULT so that people could not CONTINUE in it
(but fail), and the second one solved it by WRITING THE LAWS IN OUR
HEARTS AND NOT JUST ON STONE, then writing the laws in our hearts IS
SOMEHOW GOING TO ALLOW US TO CONTINUE THIS TIME!
But notice it!
- It has to get INTO OUR HEARTS.
- THIS IS WHERE OUR CONSCIENCES ARE.
- If you hesitate, and are stuck, the word has
not gotten into your heart well enough.
Notice this very important part.
- (We have been discussing entering the REST)
Hebrews 9:8-14 MKJV the Holy Spirit
signifying by
this that the way into the Holiest of all (SYMBOL OF THE REST) was not
yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.
(9)
For it was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him who did the service
perfect as regards the conscience, (10) which stood only in
meats and
drinks, and different kinds of washings and fleshly ordinances, imposed
on them until the time of reformation. (NEVER FORGET THIS.
SOME WILL
TELL YOU TO KEEP KEEPING ORDINANCES, BUT THEY ARE FLESHLY AND THEY WERE
ONLY IMPOSED UNTIL THE TIME OF REFORMATION)
This is showing us that the FIRST TABERNACLE WAS SYMBOLIC OF THE FIRST
COVENANT BEFORE CHRIST CAME.
- As long as THAT covenant was there, nobody
was going to get into the REST.
- Until that covenant is taken out of the way,
we’re out.
- UNTIL REFORMATION.
- Until the meats and drinks, and different
kinds of washings and fleshly ordinances are FINISHED WITH, we’re
going nowhere.
- The first tabernacle represents all the
system of FLESHLY ORDINANCES AND RITUALS THAT DO NOT AFFECT OUR
CONSCIENCES AND HEARTS.
(11) But when Christ had become a high priest of good things to
come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building (12) nor by the blood of goats
and
calves, but by His own blood He entered once for all into the Holies,
having obtained eternal redemption for us.
He did something that obtained ETERNAL REDEMPTION FOR US.
- Something that did not require ANY MORE WORK
TO BE DONE TO deal with all that was keeping us out.
- THIS COVENANT DID NOT HAVE FAULT.
(13) For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a
heifer
sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh,
(14)
how much more shall the blood of Christ (who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God) purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:8-10 MSG This was the Holy Spirit's way of showing with
a
visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can't
just walk in on God. (9) Under this system, the gifts and
sacrifices
can't really get to the heart of the matter, can't assuage the
conscience of the people, (10) but are limited to matters
of ritual
and behavior. It's essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete
overhaul could be made.
The truth of the blood of Jesus will knock out your ideas and concerns
for good works to please God.
- You will serve the LIVING GOD.
- DEAD WORKS are sinful actions.
- VERSE 13: The blood of beasts could
not remove the guilt of committing sinful acts.
- It never removed guilt.
- It only allowed for ceremonial involvement.
- Let you take part in rituals – nothing
more.
- But Jesus’ blood GOES ALL THE WAY.
- You are baptized into HIS DEATH, so that YOU
DIED and are therefore FREED FROM SIN! (Rom 6:6-7).
- Look at Old Judaist Law as trimming hedges
because the branches keep going wild and out of order, but the wild out
of order mess never stops.
- SO THE NEW KEY IS TO CUT THE WHOLE MESS DOWN.
- WE DIED WITH JESUS. BOOM!
People’s CONSCIENCES are what SUFFERS GUILT.
- Guilt because they know they have to face
God due to sinning.
- But the blood of bulls and goats cannot
remove that guilt.
- The blood of beasts could not bring peace to
a troubled conscience.
- They only purified their fleshliness, so
they could outwardly get involved with ceremonies.
- This is why entrance to the HOLIEST was not
allowable when these ordinances were imposed.
- The things that trouble us because we
violated a holy law could not YET AT THAT TIME be dealt with.
- You think of death and judgment and get
troubled, since the blood of animals from old testament sacrifices
cannot remove that guilt.
Hebrews 9:22 MKJV And almost all things are by the law purged
with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission.
ALMOST ALL… BUT NOT THE CONSCIENCE.
We are talking about ENTRANCE INTO REST.
You cannot rest if you feel guilty before God.
The confidence we need to hold firm to until the end comes when OUR
CONSCIENCES ARE PURGED.
- We need to grasp what it means to be freed
from sin by our deaths with Christ.
- If we don’t grasp this, our
consciences will
not be purged either, and we will hesitate and never get into the
holiest -- the Garden status – the REST – where God
can GET ON WITH
HIS ORIGINAL PLAN WITH US.
Hebrews 6:18-20 MKJV so that by two immutable things, in which it
was
impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,
(19) which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and
which enters into that within the veil, (20) where the
Forerunner has
entered for us, even Jesus, having become a high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews tells us that we need to enter into the most holy presence of
God.
- You know very well that guilt and a feeling
of not being good enough is not going to allow you to enter.
- It’s too holy for guilty people to let
themselves enter.
Remember that he quoted Jer 31 in chapter 8 where we learned the old
covenant had a fault, and the remedy was a new one that would put his
word in our hearts?
He repeats that passage.
Hebrews 10:16-22 MKJV "This is the covenant that I will make with
them
after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws into their hearts,
and in their minds I will write them," (17) also He adds,
"their sins
and their iniquities I will remember no more." (18) Now
where
remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
(19)
Therefore, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies
by the blood of Jesus, (20) by a new and living way which
He has
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;
(21)
and having a High Priest over the house of God, (22) let us
draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies having been washed
with pure water.
When your mind hesitates, you need to tell yourself, “No,
mind. You’re
wrong. Christ remitted my sins. He forgot them. No
more offering –
nothing – is required for me to enter now. Conscience, hear
the word
of the Lord! BE BOLD NOW AND ENTER!”
It is in dealing with cutting off all the sins of our lives and
REMITTING THEM.
- When Jeremiah 31 said that our sins and
iniquities would be remembered no more by God, that means they are
REMITTED.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 MKJV Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that
I
will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah, (32) not according to the covenant that I cut with
their
fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a
husband to them, says Jehovah; (33) but this shall be the
covenant
that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, says
Jehovah, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
(34)
And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his
brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know Me, from the
least of them to the greatest of them, says Jehovah. For I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.
So, sins are remitted. KNOWING THAT gives us BOLDNESS.
Notice Hebrews 10:21 adds the idea that we have a high priest as
another reason for us to enter boldly.
(21) and having a High Priest over the house of God,
(22) let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies having been
washed with pure water.
First we’re told that OUR INIQUITIES ARE REMITTED, so no further
need for sacrifice is required.
- THEN we are told WE HAVE A HIGH PRIEST named
JESUS.
- This takes us back to chapter 4.
Hebrews 4:12-16 MKJV For the Word of God is living and powerful
and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. (13) Neither is
there any
creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked
and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (14)
Since
then we have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. (15) For
we do not
have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted just as we are, yet without
sin. (16) Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of
grace, that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Chapter 4 says the same thing as chapter 10.
- COME BOLDLY to the holiest – to the
throne.
- The high priest is touched by our weaknesses.
- He knows what hurts and how it feels because
he suffered temptation.
- So when he cuts with HIS WORD-SWORD,
he really wants to remove that misery out of our lives.
- HE KNOWS WHERE TO FIND IT!
- HE ANOINTS PREACHERS TO PREACH JUST THE
RIGHT THING at the right moment in order to slice out and remove
whatever unbelief torments you with guilt.
- He knows JUST WHAT WORD to give.
- Just how to use the sword the right way.
- Using the sword at the right angle and the
proper force is like knowing WHAT PART OF THE BIBLE WE NEED TO HEAR AT
THE RIGHT MOMENT FOR IT TO remove the guilt we are troubled by.
When you are not getting the revelation of the cross, you feel
inadequate, and may not even know what is your problem but you’re
convinced you cannot be good enough.
- Hebrews teaches us to depend upon what Jesus
did – and not the good works we instinctively think we need to do
when
we feel unworthy.
- We need to REST FROM THOSE WORKS.
- Get educated by the word and have it cut the
unbelief and instinct that makes us think we HAVE TO BE BETTER PEOPLE
out of our hearts.
If there is ANYTHING you think you need to do in order to solve the
nagging problem that God is not quite pleased with you, other than the
WORK OF THE CROSS that gets us into this life, THEN YOU ARE LEGALISTIC
and YOUR CONSCIENCE IS DEFILED.
- We have to be made aware of the COMPLETE
WORK OF THE CROSS to such an extent that we have utmost confidence and
boldness that it made us fit to enter the GARDEN THRONEROOM, the
holiest of holies.
- SO WE CAN STOP DEALING WITH
SIN-CONSCIOUSNESS, AND LET GOD GET ON WITH HIS ORIGINAL PURPOSE FOR US
and DOMINION-CONSCIOUSNESS.