The Character of God- Part 6

Subtitle:  God is Abounding in Lovingkindness

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 12, 2025.

Today, we will look at the fourth description of God’s character from Exodus 34.  God is abounding in lovingkindness!

Let’s look at our passage.

God abounds in lovingkindness in the Old Testament

Even in the English language, we can see that a compound word, like lovingkindness, is having trouble translating the original word.  This is a small Hebrew word, khesed (khe’ sed), but it has a big meaning. 

It essentially has three components to it.  First, it speaks of loving care, and then, it adds generosity.  Lastly, we add a sense of keeping commitment, loyalty.  Thus, God’s khesed is His generous, covenant-keeping love for us.  You might see that the word lovingkindness touches on two of these, but doesn’t quite cover all three aspects. 

There is a wide variety of ways that different translations have translated this.  In fact, even within a particular translation, you may see several different words. However, before we look at some English translations, I want to look at a Greek translation from the 3^rd century B.C. (c. 200 to 250).  This translation is called the Septuagint.

The Septuagint, also shown as LXX, translates this word with a Greek word that means mercy.  On first look, it may seem that they gave up on finding a word, but there is more to it than that.  We do not experience God’s khesed in a vacuum.  Rather, His amazing khesed is in the context of our continual failure to reciprocate with a love that is even remotely close to it.  Rather, humanity has tended toward a stingy, covenant-breaking self-love.  Thus, God’s generous, covenant-keeping love in the face of our unfaithfulness can be definitely understood in the context of mercy.

It is common to distinguish between grace and mercy by this.  Grace is receiving what you don’t deserve, i.e., a gift, but mercy is not receiving what you do deserve, i.e., a pardon.  Of course, the word mercy is more than this.  At its root, there is a concept of misery.  God’s grace touches the guilt of our sin, but God’s mercy goes deeper and touches the misery of our sin.

We see that this is quite a word.  Let me point out some of the choices of English versions.  The New King James Version uses lovingkindness in Exodus 34, but it also translates khesed in other places as “mercy” and even “goodness.”  The New American Standard Bible 1995 also used lovingkindness, but then, in the 2020 edition, changed it to faithfulness.  The New International Version takes the simple route and translates it as love.  The English Standard Version chose steadfast love.  Christian Standard Bible chose faithful love; New Living Translation chose unfailing love; the New English Translation chose loyal love.  They are all very similar, but no one of them capture the whole sense of khesed without requiring the reader to understand its connections to these other concepts.  Thus, God’s love (khesed) is a love like no other.  Let’s look at some examples of its usage in the Old Testament.

The story of Ruth involves a couple, Elimelech and Naomi, who lived in Bethlehem.  A famine came upon the area, and they finally sold everything and moved to Moab with their two sons.  While in Moab, Elimelech dies.  Next, we see that the two sons marry Moabite women.  They live there for over ten years when something happens that is not detailed.  Both sons die, leaving Naomi and the two daughters-in-law alone.  Ruth realizes that her daughters-in-law would be better off to go back to their families.  She also hears that the famine has lifted in Israel, so she plans to go back.

This gives us a beautiful scene where Ruth refuses to go back to her family, but chooses to go with Naomi back to Israel.  Look at her words in Ruth 1:16-18.  “16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” 18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she [e]said no more to her.” (NASB) We need to keep this expression of love in the back of our minds as we jump to their arrival in Israel.

Of course, they have no money to buy back Elimelech’s property, and they wouldn’t be able to work it by themselves even if they did.  We are told that they arrive just as the barley harvest is beginning.  This leads to Ruth deciding to glean what she can from the fields after they have been cut.  She just happens to end up in the fields of a man named Boaz.  Boaz just happens to be a near kinsman to Elimelech.  He ends up being very generous to Ruth because he is aware of Naomi’s situation and Ruth’s commendable, extreme faithfulness to her mother-in-law.

This brings us to the first mention of a generous, covenant-keeping love in Ruth 2:20.  “Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Again Naomi said to her, “The man is our relative, he is one of our closest relatives.” (NASB)

Here, Ruth returned home the first day and was able to glean almost 5 gallons of cleaned barley.  Naomi is astonished that she could gather so much in one day.  She realizes that someone has been gracious to Ruth and to her.  Several blessings are revealed as Naomi quizzes Ruth.  Ruth ended up in the field of a kinsman, and on top of that, a kinsman who was inclined to be generous to her.  The version above chose to translate khesed with the lesser term kindness.  However, Naomi uses khesed precisely because Boaz has demonstrated a generous, covenant-keeping love towards them.  He is not necessarily in a covenant with them, but as their kin, he does have a commitment to help them as best he can.  Why is Boaz being so kind, or generous?  Well, let’s look at his words in the next chapter.

Naomi begins to realize that God is helping them, and Boaz is a unique guy.  She counsels Ruth on how to discretely propose that Boaz take on the role of the kinsman redeemer by marrying her and raising up a child for Elimelech’s line.  This leads to Ruth coming to the field late in the evening while Boaz is sleeping among the harvest as a security.  She uncovers his feet and rests at his feet, waiting for the cool air on his feet to wake him up.  When Boaz wakes up, he sees a woman lying at his feet and says this.  “He said, ‘Who are you?’ And she answered, ‘I am Ruth your maid. So spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative.’ 10 Then he said, ‘May you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.’”

Just as we saw Naomi declaring the actions of Boaz to be khesed, so we have Boaz declaring of Ruth that she has twice shown khesed.  The first time that he has in mind is her faithfulness to come to Israel with Naomi.  Boaz is clearly declaring that she had done an act of khesed.  Yet, her proposal to him to marry her is called an even better khesed.  Maybe it is better simply because it is done towards him.  Regardless, we might ask again, what commitment would Ruth be keeping by asking Boaz to marry her?  First, she is a Moabitess and has every reason to fear marrying a man of a different nation.  Yet, she would do so because it would better her and Naomi’s situation.  Carrying this risk on herself is an act of keeping covenant in difficult circumstances.  Yet, she is also honoring the circumstance of Boaz being the one who was gracious to her.  Apparently, Boaz is much older than her (she is probably mid-twenties).  She might choose to marry simply to eat, but if she was merely following the lusts of her flesh, she would look for a much younger relative, redeemer, to approach with this proposal.  She is being faithful to the fact that it was he who took notice of her and chose to bless her instead of mistreating her.

Thus, David comes from great-grandparents who not only understood what khesed was, but also lived it.

Jacob’s fear of Esau in Genesis 32 is another place where we find this word.  Jacob had taken advantage of his brother when Esau was hungry.  Esau gave Jacob his birthright for a bowl of beans.  Later, Jacob deceived his father and, thereby, swindled Esau out of the blessing.  This led to Jacob fleeing to what is northeastern Syria today.  Over 20 years, he accumulated two wives, twelve kids, and he had many sheep, goats, oxen and donkeys.  Then, God told Jacob to go back to Canaan.

Genesis 32:9-10 is a prayer that Jacob prays to God on the borders of Canaan because he fears what Esau will do to him.  In verse 10, he recognizes that he is not worthy of all the lovingkindness, khesed (generous, covenant-keeping love), that God has given to him.  Lovingkindness is coupled with the word translated in NASB as “faithfulness.”  This is the word that we will look at next week, which is the last description in Exodus 34:6.

Jacob knows that he doesn’t deserve God’s blessing in his life, nor His protection.  Yet, he goes on to ask God to spare him.  He mentions his grandfather and father, recognizing that God’s mercy to him is directly connected to his covenant with them.  He is in a long line of chosen ones to whom God showed great khesed.  Yet, these chosen ones are part of God’s great khesed to humanity.  This brings us back to Israel in Egypt and God’s deliverance.

Israel’s redemption from Egypt comes to a highpoint in Exodus 15.  Israel has just come through the Red Sea in an impossible way, only to see Pharaoh’s army drowned trying to follow them.  On the opposite shore of the Red Sea, Israel sings a song of God’s deliverance.  We find this description in the middle of the song in verses 11 through 13.  “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD?  Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?  You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them.  In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; in Your strength You have guided them to your holy habitation.”

God is generously keeping his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by rescuing Israel.  Despite all of their failings through worshiping other gods, complaining about Moses and an overall stubbornness in sin in the face of God’s miracles, God has loved them.  They too could say with Jacob, “We are unworthy of Your khesed, O God!” 

This why the intercessions of Moses are so key throughout the Torah.  We saw some of these intercessions while Moses was with Israel at Mt. Sinai, and we saw the generous love that God gave to Israel then.  Yet, God’s khesed did not stop there.  When they get to the Promised Land, they refuse to go in because they see the giants.  They balk and accuse Moses (God) of bringing them to this place to get them killed.  Oh, yes, that makes sense.  God saved you from Egypt and Pharaoh’s army only to sacrifice you to Canaanite giants.  Still, unbelief has never been bothered by its penchant to overlook God’s faithfulness in the past. 

They plan to kill Moses, elect a new leader and then go back to Egypt.  In this context, God gives Moses the same offer again.  He will dispossess Israel and send plagues against them, while making a new chosen nation out of Moses and his descendants.  Numbers 14:17-20 records Moses interceding for Israel again.

“17 But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’ 19 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”  20 So the Lord said, “I have pardoned them according to your word…”

Notice here that Moses is quoting God’s description of Himself in Exodus 34 back to Him.  He is calling upon the generous covenant-keeping love of God to pardon Israel’s sin and give them mercy.  They don’t deserve it, but do it for the sake of who You are, for Your character, for Your great name!

God does lay a punishment upon that generation, but it is not one in which they can’t repent and serve God by teaching their children not to do what they did (unbelief and rebellion).  This is a grace that is similar to Adam and Eve.  Yes, difficult things are put upon them.  However, if they will carry those heavy things with faith in God, then those heavy things will do a good work in them, and God will pardon their sins.  Yes, these people will be in the wilderness for another 40 years, but they can teach their kids to avoid the failings that they did.  They can show them the good way instead of becoming angry with God’s discipline in their life.  We can embrace His generous, covenant-keeping love in the midst of his disciplines and become a testimony to others.

There are some other worthy mentions of khesed in the Old Testament.  The book of Hosea emphasizes the khesed of God versus the worthless love of Israel.  Hosea 6:4-7 says, “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?  What shall I do with you, O Judah?  For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early.  5 Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.  6 For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  7 But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me.”

God’s great khesed deserves a response of khesed towards Him.  Yet, Israel’s khesed was like the dew that quickly dissipates under the heat of the sun (difficulty, trials and temptations).  However, this was not unique to Israel.  Over and over again, whether it be Adam, the pre-flood world, the Tower of Babel generation, the patriarchs, David, Israel, etc., humanity has reciprocated God’s generous covenant keeping love with lip-service, even complete rebellion.  His generous, covenant-keeping love is met with stingy, covenant breaking treachery.  Yet, even so, God’s faithfulness would still respond by sending His Anointed One, Jesus, to create salvation from this problem for whosoever would put their faith in him.  The prophets pointed out this problem and answered that there was still hope because of God’s abounding khesed.

Jesus is the overly generous, covenant-keeping, merciful love of God

The Apostle John speaks of God’s great love given to us (1 John 3:1).  This love is not just about Israel.  Jesus dies on the cross to take the failure of Israel upon himself, but he is also dying for the Gentiles too.  It is in this reality that we can know that God really does love us.  He really has kept His covenant with us as a group (humanity) and as an individual.  In these last days, He is offering an everlasting covenant to whosoever will take Him up on it.  This covenant is really between the Father and Jesus, the perfect, human Son of God.  However, like Boaz with Ruth, we who are moral beggars can come into relationship with Jesus and participate in this covenant.

This is key.  In the face of our failures, the eternal Word of God becomes one of us to bind himself to us forever.  It is a kind of burning the bridges behind.  When Jesus takes on a mortal body, it would one day die, but to be resurrected as a human, but in an immortal, heavenly body, is a form of showing that there is no going back.  Jesus will not turn back until he has completed redemption.  He has inherited all things, and we can too because of our living connection to him.  Yet, it is more than a connection.  He has drawn us close into an intimate relationship.

We should notice throughout the Bible that those who are being cast out, or pushed out, are really being handed over to their sins so that they will repent in the midst of their resultant misery.  The sad results of our willful sin can open our eyes to God’s goodness and lead us to cry out for mercy, for grace.  “Everyone who calls upon the LORD shall be saved!”  (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21).  All of this is in the face of our failures.

Christmas should not be seen as a lovely thing of babies and gifts.  That little baby was birthed into this world with one goal in mind, to go to the cross and glorify God the Father.  He was born into a dark and evil world that truly hated him.  It was worse than an abject failure of humanity to merit anything from God, but an actual positive resistance against His purpose and plan of redemption.

The life of Jesus is the essence of sowing seeds while weeping.  Just as there was at the laying of the foundations of the earth, so too here, there is a melancholy in the midst of God’s confident love towards humanity.  All of this is done because the Lord Jesus knows that there is joy on the other side of this sadness.  The grace of God will bring it to an ultimate good.  In Jesus, the unthinkable, the inconceivable, is there over the top of our complete failure.

Though it is clear that Jesus is the perfect khesed of God towards humanity, we should not miss the reality that Jesus is also the perfect khesed of humanity towards God.  In Jesus, humanity has fully reciprocated the khesed of God with absolutely perfect khesed.  Jesus is the greater Isaac who does not struggle as he is brought to the place of sacrifice and bound to the wood.  There is no Angel of the LORD to intervene.  The greater Isaac is the greater offering that the LORD has provided to redeem humanity.

Jesus is also the greater Boaz.  He is the Son of God’s love, and we can come under his covering because he is a willing kinsman redeemer.  As Naomi counseled Ruth regarding how they could be saved, so we see our own salvation.  Others have told us how to present ourselves to Jesus, in humility, without pretense, simply asking for the grace of being covered and redeemed, asking Jesus to take us under his wing as his bride.

Jesus has the wealth to redeem us.  He has the ability to redeem everything we have lost.  Yet, he also has the heart, the loving disposition, to save us.

Yes, to connect to Christ is to receive an inheritance in the future.  However, it also gets back for us an inheritance in this mortal life.  We don’t know what that fully entails, but by faith, we press forward to take possession of our souls first, and then our lives.  We can do this because Jesus has poured out the Holy Spirit upon those who put their faith in him.  I’m not talking about houses and money.  I am talking about the works that God has determined for us to do from the very laying down of the foundation of the earth.  Let us put our faith in Jesus, listening to the Holy Spirit, trusting the Scriptures, and doing those things that He has called us to do!

Lovingkindness audio

The Acts of the Apostles 25

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense I

Sorry about the delay.  We lost power this week for several days :)

Acts 7:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 27, 2022.

Stephen has been arrested and put in front of the Sanhedrin.  They have charged with multiple counts of blasphemy.

This chapter is Stephen’s answer, or defense, before the court.  It will take a while to get through this chapter, but Stephen is pretty much making the same argument through a multitude of examples from the history of Israel.  He is simply obeying God like Abraham did, like Joseph, like Moses, and like all the prophets.  They, however, are resisting the Holy Spirit just like the tribal patriarchs, the Israelites in the days of Moses, and all of those who persecuted the prophets.

This whole chapter begs the question, “Just who is on trial here?”  Or, we might ask it this way.  Stephen knows that he is on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin, but he also realizes that they are all on trial before the God of heaven.  If anyone is being blasphemous here, it is the council who continually sits in the seat of Moses, contravening the truth of God.

Let’s get into our passage.

Remember Abraham (vs. 1-8)

The high priest asks Stephen what he has to say in regards to the charges against him.  Stephen starts with reminding them of the patriarch Abraham.  He is extremely important to Israel, the father of the faith.  God’s covenant with Israel was an extension of a prior covenant, or a greater Promise, that God had made with Abraham, their forefather.

Clearly, these men have not forgotten about Abraham per se.  Rather, they have forgotten what is most important about Abraham, and how that should impact their activity.  The most important thing about Abraham is found in Genesis 15:6, “He believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”  So, how was this belief, this faith, of Abraham displayed in his life?

First, God had called Abraham to leave Ur and to travel to the place that God would show him.  When you read Genesis 12, it appears that God speaks to Abraham while he is in Haran (a town on the Turkish side of the border with Syria).  Ur is a city much further south between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.  We would call this Iraq today.  Historically it is also called Babylonia, Chaldea, Sumer, and Mesopotamia.  Yet, in Genesis 15, God tells Abraham, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit.”  God seems to date His call upon Abraham back to his time in Ur.  This was the traditional understanding in the first century AD as well.

Abram displayed his faith by leaving his home country and heading out on the road.  He first moved into Northern Aram, Syria.  There he lived until his father died, and then he moved south into Canaan.

It is not clear how to read this.  Was Abraham disobeying to stop in Haran?  Of course, God said that He would show Abraham, as in, Abraham did not know the destination yet.  It is quite possible that God first moved Abraham out of Ur, and then later told him to head south into Canaan.  There is no hint in the Bible that Abraham’s stop in Haran was a moment of wavering faith, so we should not try to force it into that narrative.  Stephen’s language is “He [God] moved him [Abraham] to this land in which you now dwell.” (Acts 7:4 NKJV).  I believe it is best to see this as God leading Abraham in a staged fashion.

Ultimately, Abraham is depicted as one who believed God.  He believed God to the degree that he held nothing of his family and ancestors sacred.  He let it all go in order to follow God.  Imagine God speaking to you such a thing today.  Of course, God’s calling is not always about geography as it was with Abraham.  However, it is always about the things that make us comfortable and shroud the truth of God to us.  Abraham needed to leave Mesopotamia, and eventually Haran, if he wanted to fully know God.  We too will have to let go of things in order to fully know God and walk in the inheritance that He has for us.

Once Abraham was in Canaan, God promised the land to his descendants.  Abraham lived as a nomad in the deserted areas between the cities and towns of Canaan.  Thus, Stephen says that he did not have an inheritance.  Abraham lives the rest of his life in a land that he has no inheritance in and has faith in God’s promise that it would be given to his descendants. 

There are two facts that add to the amount of faith that Abraham displays.  First, Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran and 99 years old when Sarah became pregnant.  So, this whole time he believed that God would help him, even though he did not have any offspring.  Yes, even back then, Sarah was considered past child-bearing years.

In fact, this is what led to the whole Hagar fiasco.  Sarah’s lack of faith led Abraham to also stumble in trusting God.  Yet, that stumbling was not without recovery.  God help us as spouses to be careful in this area.  We do not want to be a stumbling block to our mate.

All of us will have difficulty walking in faith with God without stumbling.  We must be quick to admit our fault when the Lord holds us accountable, and we must be quick to repent and turn back to the proper path.  In Abraham’s case, repentance would not erase the effects of his lack of faith.  God can redeem these things, even though they will add difficulty to our path.  Abraham learned a valuable lesson about waiting upon the Lord.  God always has a better plan than we can make for Him.

The second fact that adds to the amount of faith Abraham had is that God revealed to him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land and not return to take up this promise for 400 years.  God makes some awesome promises to Abraham about judging that nation, and giving Canaan into their hands, but why let them become slaves in the first place.  Also, it would be such a long time down the road.  Can you imagine God calling you to a place in which you have no inheritance and dwelling as a nomad all your life, and it won’t truly “pay-off” for your descendants until 400 years down the road?

Knowing the future is not all that it is cracked up to be.  God in His mercy reveals enough of the future that we can have confidence, yet not so much that we would be overwhelmed.  Of course, people lose confidence in God every day, and feel overwhelmed with life.  However, this is not a lack of God’s grace, but a lack of my faith.

Following God is never easy.  It always calls us to live a life of faith and pass the torch on to the next generation.  Abraham’s life seems grand in the telling of it, but it was quite domestic in the overall living of it.  Long periods of time can grind a weak faith into powder.  However, that same time can increase our faith little upon little, layer upon layer.  Abraham’s journey to a life of great faith was a series of days in which he kept trusting God.

Stephen then touches on something that Israel took great pride in.  They were the circumcised as opposed to the uncircumcised Gentiles.  In Genesis 15, God cuts a covenant with Abraham, but it is in Genesis 17 that God reconfirms His covenant and gives Abraham a task.  He must circumcise himself and his offspring.  This circumcision is a sign, a symbol, or a token, of the covenant that God was making with Abraham.

Now, the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 3 makes a big deal about the fact that this covenant with Abraham is technically a Promise, whereas the covenant at Sinai had a great number of requirements that Israel had to do.  Yes, Abraham needed to walk before God in blamelessness and circumcise his offspring, but Israel would receive a whole set of laws that involved stuff beyond the moral realm of right and wrong.  This covenant of Sinai and its laws become the works of the Law versus the fruit of the Spirit shown in Abraham’s life.

May God give us a heart like Abraham’s that was not afraid to follow God into new places that we have never seen.  You will stumble along the way, but He will be faithful.  He will always show you your fault, and He will always point out the door of repentance.  Let’s walk through that door into life every day!

Defense I audio

The City of the Living God

Hebrews 12:18-24.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 27, 2017.

As we continue through this chapter about the believer’s faith, it may appear that this section is a tangent.  However, it is important to recognize that the unseen, heavenly realities are a critical part of our faith.  We have put our faith in the God of far more glorious things than those of this earth.  The temptation to gravitate towards that which can be seen must be overcome by faith in God.

When early Jews began turning towards Christ and His Church, it left many of them with a sense that they were losing some very awesome and amazing things, at least during the 40 years from the death of Jesus to the destruction of the Temple.  The pomp and circumstance of Jerusalem and its temple, priests and sacrifices had no physical correlation in the Church.  Just as idols tempted early Israelites away from worshipping the Living God (or at least mixing His worship with the surrounding idolatry), so early Christians were tempted to go back into Judaism because of its greater physicality (or, again mixing the two).  The writer of Hebrews, and in fact the Holy Spirit, was encouraging early believers that our faith is based on glorious, spiritual realities that far outshine the Old Covenant established by Moses.  Thus Christians should stand firm against the pull of their flesh back towards the Old Covenant.  We too have a tendency to try and build physical things that become more important to us than those spiritual realities.

Christians have a city, a temple, and a high priest that is spiritual and in the heavens as opposed to the earthly Jerusalem.  This does not mean that the earthly Jerusalem is no longer important to Christians.  Prophecy tells us that much is still to take place at that place on this globe that is important to God.  So let’s look at this comparison between the Old Testament (or covenant) of the Law and the New Testament of the Gospel.

The Old Covenant through Moses

In verses 18-21 we are reminded just what the covenant of Moses entailed.  As mentioned earlier, the terms Old Testament and Old Covenant are synonymous in this context.  Both are a reference to the agreement made between God and Israel at Mt. Sinai.  The Old Covenant was made at a specific place on earth.  Thus he emphasizes that it can be touched, which is indicative of the Old Covenant.  It was full of material things here on earth that could be touched and seen.  For example, when a person sinned they physically took a cow, ram, or dove to the temple and it was killed on a literal altar by a human priest.  Though the problem of sin is ultimately a spiritual problem before a spiritual God, the actions proscribed were mostly physical.

We are also reminded of the terrifying nature of their experience at Mt. Sinai.  This would be a fact that the early Christians could forget because they were 1,400 years after this event.  The biblical passage that underlies this passage is Exodus 19-20.  In this passage we are told that as they approached the mountain it was covered by a dark cloud with thunder and lightning.    Then it says that the LORD descended on the mountain as a fire, which caused smoke to ascend from it like a furnace.  On top of this all, the mountain shook from an earthquake.  As if that wasn’t enough to get their attention, a loud trumpet blast sounded from the mountain and got louder and louder.  Then Moses spoke to the LORD and an audible voice from the mountain commanded Moses to come up the mountain. 

We are also reminded that the people were also threatened with death.  God warned the people that any person or animal that touched the mountain would be put to death.  Thus a barrier was constructed between the people and the mountain.  It is clear that the giving of the Law is purposefully associated with a terrifying fear of the LORD by God Himself under threat of death.  The Law hedged them in on every side pointing out their sins.  If not for God’s mercy they could not have survived this relationship.  Over and over again they broke God’s covenant as a people and as individuals throughout those 1,400+ years.

But, the New Covenant through Jesus

In verses 22-24 he shows them that the New Covenant through Jesus is so much better and more desirable.  In a parallel manner we are shown the better aspects of the New Covenant.  As the old was made on earth, the new was made in heaven.  Yes, Jesus died on earth, but the New Covenant is actually created in heaven.  Hebrews 9 speaks of Jesus ascending into the Heavenly Temple, presenting Himself before God, and purifying the heavenly altar once and for all with His own blood.  This is much of the imagery we see in the Book of the Revelation.  The term Mt. Zion was often used of the earthly area in Jerusalem where the temple was.  However, throughout the prophets it is clear that they also speak of the heavenly temple of God as the higher Mt. Zion.  Thus just as we have an earthly city called Jerusalem with the temple of God or Mt. Zion as the place of God’s throne, so there is a Heavenly Jerusalem with a heavenly Mt. Zion upon which the Heavenly Temple, Throne of God resides.  From there God and His Divine Council govern the affairs of the heavens and the earth.   Again, this is the backdrop for most of the Book of the Revelation.  Though we cannot fly airplanes or rockets to God’s throne room, it is real.  In fact, it is more substantial than the temporary courts of mankind, which pass like the flowers of the field.  Now I understand that it can be terrifying to think of standing before God in heaven, but here we see that the Covenant of Christ bids us to come and join the family of God.  That is why it is called the Gospel, or Good News.  The atmosphere of the New Covenant is this invitation to intimate relationship with our Maker.

We are then told that this heavenly city is full of heavenly beings.  There are an innumerable company of angels (Revelation speaks of myriads of myriads).  Though some of them have fallen with the devil, there are still millions, if not billions, that are faithful to God.  Next we are told that we are a part of the General Assembly.  Some see this as synonymous with the next phrase “Church of the Firstborn.”  However, the General Assembly seems to be everyone, both angels and humans, all the faithful of creation.  The Church of the Firstborn refers only to humans who have been called out of the world to belong to Jesus, who is the Firstborn.  Our names are not registered in an earthly place where the nation could be destroyed and records lost.  Instead our names are registered in heaven where nothing can touch it or destroy it.  It is kept safe by God Himself.  We are also coming to God, who is the Judge of all things.  We are also coming to the spirits of just men made perfect.  This is our destiny.  We too will enter the spirit realm and take our place among the just that have been made perfect.  At this point we are not perfected yet.  But by faith we trust Jesus as the author and finisher/perfecter of our faith.  They are spirits now because they have left their earthly bodies behind, but the Resurrection has not occurred yet.  Eventually we will all have immortal, heavenly bodies.  This reminds us that God is bringing us to a higher order of existence, which is similar to what angels enjoy now.  Imagine being a part of a nation of angels and immortal, perfected men.  Who would want to go back to any earthly nation of this world from that?

One being is left to be mentioned and that is Jesus Himself.  In Jesus the New Covenant has much more precious service than the Old Covenant.  Jesus is the mediator between us and God.  This mediation occurred at the time that the Covenant was created.  This means that Jesus is our High Priest and He serves us in heaven.  This will never change or be handed down to a descendant.  Jesus does not offer multiple sacrifices throughout all of time.  Instead, He offered himself once and for all.  1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.”  This past mediation becomes the foundation for His present intercession on our behalf.  It also mentions the “blood of sprinkling.”  This refers to the sacrifice.  Blood from the sacrifice would be sprinkled upon the altar, thereby removing sin from the individual.  Notice that it says the blood of Jesus speaks of better things than that of Abel’s.  Some have connected this to the blood of Abel’s sacrifice.  This makes sense if you focus upon the sacrificial aspect of the death of Jesus.  However, the passage emphasizes what the blood is saying (Abel’s blood speaks something that is not better and Jesus’ blood speaks something better).  This clearly links to the record in Genesis 4 where God says that Abel’s own blood (shed by Cain) was crying out to God from the ground.  Though we are not told what this blood cries out for, we must compare it to what Jesus cried out when He was dying.  “Father, forgive them.  They do not know what they are doing.”  If the blood of Jesus cries out to the Father to be forgiving then Abel’s blood cries out for something less than forgiveness.  It would seem that Abel’s blood is crying out for justice because God places a curse upon Cain for what he has done.  So what is God’s response to the Blood of Jesus and it’s cry of forgiveness?  His answer is this.  He will forgive anyone who repents of their sins and puts their faith in Jesus.  Have you done this today?  If you have done this, are you tempted to add to the Gospel all manner of visible aspects of the Law to assuage your flesh?  Let us hear the call of Jesus to those who are weary and heavy laden.  Come to Him and find rest.  Repent of your sins today and follow Jesus by faith.  Don’t be tempted to go back under the Law of Moses, but instead, walk with the Spirit of God and live out the righteousness of Christ.  Our destiny is to take our place in the Heavenly Jerusalem among the glorious beings and having a glory of our own.

City of the Living God audio

The Promise of the Father

Isaiah 59:19-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 21, 2017.

In Acts 1:4 it says of Jesus and his disciples, “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’”  We are going to take some time to answer the question, “What promise from the Father is He talking about?”  There are many promises throughout the Old Testament of the Bible, some of them promise blessing, and some of them promise judgment.  But Jesus is clearly referring to the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the Old Testament we see at first hints of this promised giving of the Holy Spirit.  However several places in the prophets make a clear promise from God that this day was coming.  Just as people were baptized in water by John to point to a spiritual inward act of repentance, so at a higher level would be the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Repentance is good.  But, if the Holy Spirit does not take up residence in our heart and then also fill us with His enabling power, moment by moment, then the repentance will fall short and our faith will wither.  This baptism takes that initial connection to the Spirit of God and makes it a continual, empowering presence.

Now it is easy in this world to lose sight of the reality that God promises to place His Spirit upon us, and within us.  If we try merely to be righteous without a real, abiding presence of the Lord, we will find ourselves drained of any spiritual strength, and without a sustaining hope.  So let’s beware the trap of only living righteously in the natural.  But, let us live out that righteousness with the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

He promises to deliver

It would be good to read the whole chapter in order to get the context of these verses.  You will find two things in this passage.  First, you will see that Israel had turned from God and towards unrighteousness.  They had become such a wicked society that those who tried to follow the Lord made “themselves a prey” (vs. 15).  It was a dangerous time to be a person who followed the ways of the Lord.  The situation is so dire that the Lord is pictured in vs. 16 amazed that they had been taken captive by sin and there was no one who could step in and deliver them.  We could think that surely Isaiah could be the answer.  But, it takes more than a prophet to speak on behalf of God to save people from their sins.  Even Isaiah himself testified that, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”  Thus it transitions by saying that the Lord would bring forth salvation and deliverance by His own right arm.

This deliverance is described in verses 16-18.  There we see a dual deliverance.  Israel would be delivered from the wicked of the nations that surrounded them.  However, God would also judge Israel and deliver the righteous from the unrighteous within the land.  God recognized that not all Israel was righteous.  In fact, though it is true that the nations persecuted and oppressed Israel, the righteous of the land were even more oppressed by the wicked that rose up from within the nation.  This was not a national problem that could be fixed with a war to end all wars.  It was a problem that started in the heart of every man, woman, boy, and girl.  So what is a person who wants to serve God supposed to do?  They need to recognize the reality that we can easily see the sins of others and blame them for our struggle.  But, we rarely recognize the truth that our greatest persecution comes from with our own sinful nature.  Our hearts betray us and long for paths that lead to pain and destruction.  Ultimately the Bible makes it clear that God is giving people a choice.  You can either let God deliver you from your own sins, or you can reject him and join ranks with the rebels, both the heavenly ones (the devil and his angels) and the earthly ones (wicked humans).  This promise to deliver from our external enemies and our internal threat, both foreign and domestic threats, brings us to verse 19 where the whole earth will fear the Lord when He accomplishes this deliverance.  In some ways our Lord accomplished this deliverance at the cross.  He made provision for our own sins to be forgiven, and He secured for us an eternal inheritance that overcomes anything the wicked of this world could do to us (including kill us).  However, at our Lord’s Second Coming, the Scriptures are clear that he will remove the heavenly and earthly rebels and hand the administration of the earth over to the righteous.  So in a sense we are still waiting for this to be fulfilled, all the while enjoying the benefits of our Lord’s deliverance begun at the cross.

The second part of verse 19 has a grammar issue.  It is not clear just what is coming like a flood.  If it is the enemy then the clause states this, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up against it.”  However, it is possible that it is the Spirit of the Lord itself that comes like a flood.  And thus it would read, “The Spirit will come like a violent river against it.”  In the end both options leave us with the sense that no matter what the enemy does, God has a day in which He will judge them and remove them out of the way.  That day will leave the whole earth trembling in fear at His great power.  We must not forget, in these days when it seems that wickedness reigns in every nation on earth, and holds the reins of power in every aspect of our societies, that God has not forsaken us.  Through Jesus, He has taken up the task of delivering us as our representative champion.

However, verse 20, uses the title of this champion, The Redeemer.  The word could be translated “Kinsman Redeemer,” like it is used in the book of Ruth.  The idea of the Kinsman redeemer was that close relatives were to safeguard the person, property, and posterity of their extended family.  Thus if someone was murdered then a close relative was to take up the role of Kinsman Redeemer.  They would take on the duty of seeking out who did it and getting justice.  In Ruth the issue is more about property and posterity.  Ruth had married an Israelite who had sold his land and moved to Moab because of famine.  When she comes to Israel, she is technically heir to his property, but doesn’t have the money to redeem it (buy it back).  Not only this but, they had no children before her husband died.  Thus his name or lineage was in danger of dying out.  Thus the story is about Ruth asking Boaz to be a Kinsman Redeemer to her.  He does this by marrying Ruth and restoring both her property and her posterity.  This gives us background to why Jesus becomes a human.  It is so that he can be our Kinsman redeemer.  He is one of us.  We are all under the threat of death due to our sins.  We have been plundered of all our inheritance that God has intended for us and are spiritually childless.  However, Jesus steps in and takes those who turn from transgression (vs. 20) as a bride.  In Him we now have eternal life, an eternal inheritance and an eternal posterity.  The deliverance is not just from external enemies, but also from a plight of powerlessness that have brought upon our self through sin.  In Jesus, all that the devil has done to spoil God’s kingdom is overturned for those who “turn from transgression.”  So the promise of deliverance is not to the wicked, but to those who are like Ruth.  They long to take their place in God’s kingdom but are powerless to do so.  These he buys back from their sin and its consequence of death.  These He redeems.

He promises a covenant with the redeemed

Verse 21 states that the Lord will make a covenant with those who are being redeemed.  This is clearly a covenant that is different from the covenant that God made through Moses.  This is why the Bible is divided into the Old Testament (or Covenant) and a New Testament (or Covenant).  The promise/covenant is basically God’s Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit, that was upon Isaiah in order to reveal to Israel the Word of God, would be upon all those who are spiritually descended from him, or have the same faith as him.  I say this because Jesus points out this line of argument in John 8, where the crowd in Jerusalem thought they were protected because they were Abraham’s children.  Jesus challenges this assertion and points out that they are nothing like Abraham.  If they were truly Abraham’s children then they would have rejoiced to see Jesus and embraced him.  But, they were nothing like Abraham.  They were like their true father the devil.  The point is not that Jesus thinks that they are biologically from the devil.  Rather, they may be biologically children of Abraham, but they are spiritually children of the devil.  They have turned their back on their earthly and heavenly father, and chosen to identify with an evil, fallen father.  So too in this passage, the descendants are not just biological descendants.  Yes, parents must endeavor to raise up their biological children to also become their spiritual children.  But, what is God’s promise to these descendants?  The Spirit of God will be upon them and fill their mouths with God’s Word.

It is important to recognize both aspects.  We are intended to walk daily with the Holy Spirit upon our life and filling our mouth with God’s Word.  This daily communion with the Spirit and this daily filling of our heart and mind with God’s thoughts and decrees is a promise that God has made available for us.  So the question is, “Are you spiritually a descendant of those who believed on Jesus, and if so, are you walking in harmony with God’s Spirit?”  May God help us to reject this world’s encouragement to pursue the things of the flesh and thereby losing the precious communion and empowering that He has for us.

Not only would the Spirit be in their life, but it would not be a momentary thing.  In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit only came upon certain individuals and only at certain times.  Thus the Holy Spirit’s presence was an uncommon event that came upon uncommon people at uncommon times.  This promise is that the Holy Spirit would become the common experience of the common, righteous person, without end.  It is this promise that enables us to live in a world surrounded by the unrighteous (both spiritual and natural), wrestle with our internal, fleshly nature, and be victorious.  Jesus not only overcame the world, but He enables us to overcome the world.  By the Holy Spirit we can go into our heart and mind and recognize the areas that need to be let go and the areas that need to be built up.  He can free us even from that inner unrighteousness that seeks to overcome us.  In Christ we are more than victorious over our own sin-problem.  We are enabled to be rescuers of others.  Let’s ask God for this promise each and every day.  Let’s seek the help of the Holy Spirit for our battles both internal and external.