THE NATURE OF YEHOVAH

Omnipotence means God is all-powerful.

Omniscience means God is all-knowing. This means God knows everything, including the past and future. There is nothing God is unaware of.

Omnipresence means God is everywhere at the same time.

Yehovah is love:

1Jo 4:16: And we have known and believed the love that Yehovah has to us. Yehovah is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in Yehovah, and Yehovha in him.

1John 4:7:  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of Yehovah, and every one that loves is born of Yehovah, and knowss Yehovah. 

Our response to His love should be:

Deuteromony 30:20: That you may love Yehovah your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him: for he is your life, and the length of your days……

Yehovah our God is in our midst:

Zephaniah 3:17: Yehovah your God in the midst of you is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over you with singing.

Yehovah shows us what is good and what He requires of us:

eHHeMicah 6:8: He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does Yehovah require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Yehovah is rich in mercy:

Ephesians 2:4: But Yehovah, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loves us,

Yehovah is faithfull: Deuturonomy 7:9:  Know therefore that Yehovah your God, He is God, the faithful God, which keeps

covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations;

1Corinthians 1:9: Yehovah is faithfull, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His son Jesus the Messiah our lord.

1Corinthians 10:13: There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but Yehovah is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Yehovah is our sun and shield:

Psalm 84:11: For Yehovah God is a sun and shield: Yehovah will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Yehovah is our strong tower:

Proverbs 18:10: The name of Yehovah is a strong tower: the righteous run into it, and is safe.

Yehovah is our sure defence:

Psalm 7:10:  My defence is of Yehovah, who saves the upright in heart.

Psalm 59:16: But I will sing of your power; yea, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning: for you have been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.

Psalm 94:22: But Yehovah is my defence;

and my God is the rock of my refuge.

Yehovah is my rock:

Deuteronomy 32:4: He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.

1 Samuel 2:2: There is none holy as Yehovah, for there is none beside you: neither is there any rock like our God.

2 Samuel 22:2: And he said, Yehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

2 Samuel 22:32: For who is God, save Yehovah? and who is a rock, save our God?

Psalm 18:2: Yehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Psalm 31:3: For you are my rock and my fortress; therefore for your name’s sake lead me, and guide me.

Psalm 62:6: He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.

Yehovah is my salvation:

Psalm 3:8: Salvation belongs unto Yehovah: your blessing is upon your people.

Psalm 27:1: Yehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Yehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Isaiah 12:2: Behold, Yehovah is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Yehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.

Acts 28:28: Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of the Messiah: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

1 Thessalonians 5:9: For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our lord Jesus the Messiah,

Hebrews 2:10:  For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Hebrews 5:9: And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Behold, look what Yehovah has done!

Zechariah 3:1-4: And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the angel of Yehovah said unto Satan, Yehovah rebuke you, O Satan; even Yehovah that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spoke unto those [attending angels] that stood before him [the angel of Yehovah], saying, Take away the filthy garments from him [Joshua]. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with festive garments.

Note: The angel of Yehovah is acting as Yehovah's agent and under the Hebrew law of agency the agent speaks and acts as if it were the principle speaking and acting.

Note: The festive garments (this word is used only here and in Isaiah 3;22) speak of purity, glory and joy, but their chief significance is that they speak of the reinstatement of the nation to their original calling (see Exodus 19:6; Isaiah 61:6).

Note: Joshua clothed in filthy garments; “is it not a perfect picture of Israel today? A priest; but defiled and unclean.

Israel will remain in that condition until her true High Priest and Messiah returns and then she will put on festive garments.

Now let us turn to the Prince of Peace, to the true High Priest, and the lord Messiah Jesus, of whom Joshua was a type.

We have seen how Yehovah dealt with Joshua; and this is the same way he deals with any sinner according to His sovereign choice in grace. For of every person who has been brought to Yehovah, it can be truly said: “Yehovah has chosen you”. That choice was made before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1). But look at the sinner as he actually appears before Yehovah, it is with filthy garment, such as Joshua wore. Every righteousness of the sinner is only filthiness before God. And he/she is helpless to alter his/her condition. If left to himself/herself and his/her own efforts, he/she would be that way until resurrected at the White Throne Judgment; and not having their names written in the book of life will be cast into the Lake of Fire and destroyed, the memory of them forgotten.

But thanks be to  Yehovah; His anointed one Jesus, by his sin offering sacrifice, made it possible for him/her to be clothed with new garments (festive grarment), even with the robe of Jesus own righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; 2 Corinthians 5:2) When so forgiven and cleansed by Yehovah , the sinner becomes immediately a priest before Him with a priestly service and ministry as part of the body [the called-out Assembly] of the Messiah who is himself the great High Priest.

Redeemed ones are truly men and women of wonder, for even the angels desire to look into these things (Ephesians 3:10). A godly walk on the foundation of redemption is enabled by  the work of God; a godly and consistent testimony completes it as well.

Behold, what Yehovah has done. Amazing Grace how sweet it is!

 

THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF JESUS AND THE NEW CREATION

The virgin birth of Jesus is recorded in Matthew and in Luke (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-38), but neither gospel explains its meaning. The lack of explanation is surprising given that the virgin birth was no ordinary event. How ought we to understand it if no explanation is given for it? In Luke’s account of the virgin birth, one verse stands out, however:

Luke 1:35: And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy; the Son of God” (ESV).

Genesis 1:2: The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering [or brooding] over the face of the waters. (ESV)

The Holy Spirit’s overshadowing of Mary in Luke 1:35, has a parallel in Genesis 1:2 which says that at the creation of the world, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters”. Many OT scholars note that in the Hebrew text, “hovering over” literally means “brooding over” (the word “brooding” refers to a bird’s sitting on eggs to hatch them).

The two parallels between Luke 1:35 and Genesis 1:2 (namely, Holy Spirit // Spirit of God and 

overshadowing // hovering/brooding) bring out a vital truth:

The overshadowing of Mary by the Holy Spirit hads to do with the new creation whereas in Genesis, the Spirit’s brooding over the as yet unformed earth has to do with the “old” (physical or material) creation.

The overshadowing of Mary by God’s Spirit indicates that the new creation is primarily a spiritual creation brought into being by being “born of the Spirit.”

The meaning of the virgin birth is brought out not only in Jesus’ teaching of being “born of the Spirit” (John 3:5) but also in Paul’s teaching of the “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15), a term that, like the virgin birth, would be unintelligible if it were given “out of the blue” without explanation or precedent.

There is no doubt that the word, “overshadow” (episkiazō) in the account of the virgin birth points back to the Spirit’s involvement in the Genesis creation (“the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters,” Genesis 1:2). Here the word “hovering” (Hebrew rachaph, used elsewhere only in Deuteronomy 32:11) brings out the idea of “overshadowing”.

The Spirit of God brought into being a new creation in Mary, replacing a sperm from Adam’s descendants. In this way Jesus is a descendant of Adam via Mary but also the beginning of a new creation by the creative power of the Spirit of Yahweh. This would explain Paul’s teaching of the “new creation” in God's anointed one (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; cf. Revelation 21:5) and of Jesus as “the man of heaven” or “the spiritual man” (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).

Jesus came into being by the creative power of God’s Spirit. Hence believers are, as a result of being in God’s anointed one, incorporated into the new creation, becoming new persons through God’s transforming power. Just as Jesus was born of the Spirit at his birth, so everyone needs to be born of the Spirit, as is stated in the well-known words to Nicodemus: “You (plural) must be born from above” (John 3:7), and “Unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (3:3); that is, he cannot inherit eternal life.

What God has accomplished in Jesus, He intends to reproduce in every human being such that he or she becomes a new creation or a new creature by being born of the Spirit into a new life that is lived by the power of God’s indwelling Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16). God has in view that we grow into a “mature manhood, to the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

In the New Testament, being a Christian is not just a matter of believing in Jesus or believing that he died for us, but is crucially a matter of becoming a new person who is like Jesus in the way he lives and thinks. This is what constitutes true believing or what Paul calls “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26). True faith includes obedience to the Father that mirrors the way Jesus lived in perfect obedience to Him. In the New Testament, any claim to faith is spurious if it is not accompanied by wholehearted obedience.

Chang, Eric H.H.. The Only Perfect Man: The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ (p. 283).

Edited by Bruce Lyon

ABIDE – LIVE IN ME

Throughout this article I will substitute the word “live” for the word “abide”.

Notice what Jesus says to his disciples as he is instruction them shortly before his crucifixion.

John 15: 4-7: Live in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it live in the vine; no more can you, except you live in me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that lives in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If a man lives not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you live in me, and my words live in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.

The apostle John who heard these words passed them on to believers in his epistle. There we read:

“He that says he lives in him aught himself also so to walk, even as he walked”

“And now, children, live in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

“Whoever lives in him sins not”

(1 John 2:6, 28: 3:6)

What does it mean to live in God’s anointed one Jesus. Does it not imply a walk that finds in God’s anointed one its object and perfect pattern?

Again, does not living in God’s anointed one suppose a heart that desires to learn of him?

Above all, does not living in God’s anointed one imply a life lived under the influence of his presence, realized by faith?

To walk, realizing that he listens to our words; that he sees our every act; that he reads our thoughts; is to walk under the influence of his presence and thus live in him.

What do we realize about living in God’s anointed one?

First, we learn that living in God’s anointed one we shall bring forth fruit. We have been told that unless we live in God’s anointed one we cannot bring forth fruit. We are told that if we do live in God’s anointed one, and he in us, we shall bring forth much fruit. The fruit we bring forth is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23). These qualities are a description of the character of the lord Jesus. So we can truthfully say that the fruit of which the lord speaks is the reproduction of his own character in the lives of his disciples.

We can never exhibit the character of God’s anointed one by our own effort to try to be like him. If we have his indwelling presence in us, then we can live in him and be enabled to become more like him from glory to glory.

Second: The lord’s words plainly tell us that, living in him our prayers will have an answer. IF we are under the influence of his presence, with his words living in our hearts, our thought will be formed according to his influence, and we will pray according to that influence indwelling us. That is a key to answered prayer.

Third: John tell us in his epistle, that “living in him” will lead us to “walk even as he walked” (1 John 2:6). How did Jesus walk? “He did not please himself” Speaking of his Father he said that “I always do the things that please Him”. This is a perfect pattern for believers to walk, as Paul says, we “ought to walk and please God” 1 Thessalonians 4:1). Again he says, “walk in love as God's anointed one has loved us” (Ephesians 5:2).

We know that the entire marks of the lord’s path were walked entirely without self-will in doing his Father’s will, and serving others in love. For us, it is only possible to tread such a path of perfection as we live in God’s anointed one and he lives in us.

We must live in God’s anointed one and thus walk with him, if we are to be like him and walk as he walked.

Forth: John said that “whosoever lives in him sins not” (1 John 3:6). From the preceding verse we learn that the spirit of God means by sin – v.4 “sin is lawlessness” The essence of sin is doing one’s own will without reference to God or man.

Whenever the spirit of lawlessness prevails, disintegration will follow, whether it is in the world or among the people of God. As believers we are ever in danger of being affected by the spirit of the world around us.

The spirit of lawlessness that stems from self-will always leads to disintegration, the greater the sincerity of those who pursue their own self-will, the greater harm they will cause. There is no greater cause of disruption among the people of God that the determined will of a self-willed man.

How can we escape the evil principles of lawless, or self-will? Only by living in God’s anointed one, for John tells us, “Whosoever lives in him sins not.”

IF we answer to the lord’s words by seeking to live in him, our lives will bear fruit by expressing something of his character.

Our walk would be preserved from the lawlessness of the flesh, that is the root cause of the ruin of man and the suffering in this world.

How good to heed the lord’s word “Live in me…. For without me you can do nothing.”

SEVEN EXHORTATIONS

As this age is soon coming to an end and we see the signs of the end times now coming into view we can be encourage by the seven exhortations given to us in Philippians 4:1-9. IF we take these exhortations to heart live by them they will lift us above the sorrows and trials along the narrow path that leds to life in the coming new age!

"STAND FAST IN THE LORD" (V.1)

This exhortation brings before us a resource in the presence of every kind of trial. When Paul gave us this word, he was in prison. Within the christian circle he was opposed by jealous men who who were preaching Jesus out of enby, strife, and contention seeking to "arouse tribulation" for him (1:15, 16). Outside the christian circle were adversaries plotting for his life. (1:28).

Nevertheless, he was not cast down, nor overcome by the one or the other of these adversaries. If adversaries preach Jesus out of envy, he rejoices that Jesus is preached.

What enabled him to stand unshaken in the presence of every opposition? It was his absolute confidence in the lord Jesus that enabled him to stand fast!

We don't stand fast according to our own strength but we can stand fast enabled by the one who is able to subdue all things unto himself. (2;9; 3:21)

"BE OF THE SAME MIND AS THE LORD" (V.2)

If Christendom today there is a lot of strife created by those who differ with others as to what they think the scriptures say. Most of this comes from someone who thinks they have an exclusive and correct understanding of what the scriptures say, when in fact Paul states “we only see through a glass darkly” in regard to our understanding.

The only way to resolve this problem is to do as Paul indicates; “Let this mind be in you that was also in God’s anointed one Jesus. His was the lowly mind that led him to make himself of no reputation in order to serve others in love.

Self likes to be served, and thinks it is above others when served by others; but love delights to serve others.

“REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS” (V. 4)

Paul knew that God has called us to be with God’s anointed one. He rejoice in the opportunity that he has to serve the lord Jesus in fulfilling the commission that he gave him to do.

There are many times in our walk along the difficult way that leads to life that we will be lifted up in rejoicing as Paul and Silas did when they were in jail after being beaten. We should rejoice in the lord always in all our circumstances.

”LET YOU GENTLENESS BE KNOWN

TO ALL MEN” (V. 5)

It is only as we walk the lord before us, according to the first three exhortations, that we will be able to carry out this exhortation which sets before us the character of gentleness by which we should be known to all we came in contact with.

Jesus character was marked by “meekness and gentleness” (2 Corinthians 10:11). “The servant of the lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men” (2 Timothy 2:24) Gentleness is irresistible!

Remember it is not our job to assert ourselves to set the world right. Jesus will take care of that when he comes back to take his place on the throne of David at Zion at the end of this age. If the world recognizes us it should be only to notice our “gentleness”.

“BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING” (V. 6)

No matter what is taking place all around us Paul exhorts us to “be careful for nothing”. He says “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God.” This is the only way we will find relief in times of trial. “In everything” whatever the trial is  make it known to Yehovah in prayer. Let Him know exactly what you want and then wait for His answer. He will always answer us according to what is good for us in the short term and long term, always! He will act in His perfect wisdom according to His amazing grace and love for us.

Read the story of Hannah and how she received an answer to her prayers. (1 Samuel 1:6-18).

“THINK ON THESE THINGS” (V. 8)

Rejoicing in the lord, set free from care, we will be able to peacefully pure those things that are pure, righteous and praiseworthy.

In this world we are constantly being influenced by all the things taking place around us. As a result we have to exercise self discipline, one of the fruit of the spirit in order to not allow this world to rule in our lives. Satan, our own sinful flesh and things in this world will try to pull us away from waling in the spirit along the path that leads to life. We need to think on the things that will lead us to follow in the steps of the lord Jesus along the way.

“THESE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE BOTH LEARNED, AND RECEIVED, AND HEARD,

AND SEEN IN ME, DO” (V. 9)

Right thinking will always lead to right doing” It is not enough to have “learned” and “received” the truth, or have “heard” it. What we have learned and received and heard and seen is to lived out in our lives. We are to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22)

In spite of all the failure in Christendom, and all the trials along the way, how blessed are those believers who:

Stand fast in the lord Jesus

Have the same mind as the lord

Rejoice in the lord

Who are known by all for their gentleness

Who are careful for nothing

Who have minds set on things that are pure.

Who practice, “do” all they have “learned”

and “received”.

All of these things can be carried out by all believers from the youngest to the oldest enabled by the power of God’s Spirit.