Volume 25, Issue 4
Page 28
WisconsinChristianNews.com
The Mystery Of the Gospel
By Ron Webster August 2024
heart (Colossians 2:20, 22-23). The Apostle Paul addresses this con- cern in Colossians chapter two. He repeats what Moses said long ago, warning the Israelites to simply take God at His word as we shall see from Deuteronomy and Exodus. Colossians 2:8-11, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world (the laws of man), and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision (of the heart) made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” that the mysteries be revealed. Moses also had stated something very similar in Deuteronomy 30:6, and 14-18, “The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live… [My] word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” That was the work of the Spirit of God then and still is! “See I have set before thee this day
Last time, we looked at the gospel from an Old Testament perspective and why it was a mystery back then. It was because their hearts were turned after the gods of this world, leaving them with unrealistic expectations of the one and only true God of all grace. The Pharisees were a prod- uct of their willful ignorance of the Scrip- tures perverted over the years by the
wicked priests, scribes, and kings. They were all bent on re-defining God’s every word according to how they wanted to understand God’s commandments. With no end to the writing (the Talmud) of “ordi- nances… which all are to perish with the using; after the commandments and doctrines of men.” The Pharisees and those like them since, focus on the outward show of righteousness. They neglect the necessary change of the mind and
For He created every one of us, and by His grace only do we continue to live. The children of Israel, because they turned their hearts from God to the gods of this world, still wanted God’s blessings as well as the blessings of the world. So by emphasizing the works of the law by the Talmud, they appeared to the blind as godly people. But Jesus knew their hearts as hypocrites and blind fools (Matthew chapter 23): For their hearts were far from Him. As blind fools they concluded that the purpose of the Messiah was to set them free from their bondage to their enemies throughout their history, because they failed, not God, to rid themselves of their enemies as God commanded them to do. How did this happen? It happens by one choice at a time, until one forgets when it started, and how one got there. It started on their journey to the land of promise when they forgot the abundant grace which God had provided them, to meet their every need each day of their lives. They would rather live under Egyptian bondage than be obedient to the One who just performed all the amazing signs and wonders that brought them up out of Egypt (Exodus 16:1-3). Again in Exodus 32:1-8 they gave up on Moses, but in reality they gave up on the Lord God of Jacob as the King of kings, and Lord of lords; turning their hearts to the gods of this world, specifically a golden calf; a god of fertility (Exodus 32:24- 28). Most pagan gods have this connection to worship with sexual ac- tivity. Again in Numbers 13:1-33, when the twelve spies returned, ten did not consider that God was to be the one to make the difference of success, except Joshua and Caleb the only two leaving Egypt to enter the land of promise. “The whole congregation said unto (Moses and Aaron), would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in the wilderness… were it not better for us to return to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:2-3). Without the proper understanding, and ap- preciation for God’s abundant grace, starting with creation and every- thing He had planned for mankind even before creation, the hope of the gospel is in vain. In Numbers 25:1-9 the children of Israel, instead of trusting God to help them as He promised, to destroy, or at least drive out the inhabi- tants of the land, they chose to commit whordom with the daughters of Moab, sacrificing to their gods, and bowing down to them. God, in His anger, destroyed twenty four thousand of them. Again in Numbers 31:7- 18 as they fought to destroy the Midianites they only slew the males, and saved all the women alive. God only spared those who were virgins of the woman and children but the rest of them were slain along with the men of Israel who committed whordom with them.
life and good, death and evil; In that I command thee this day (not by work of the flesh, but) to love the Lord thy God (with all thy heart, soul, and mind: Then) to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgment (as guided by the Spirit), that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to posses it.” All as a light to the Gentile nations around them as commanded in Deuteronomy 4:6! “But if thine heart turn away (as they did), so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them (as even Solomon did. Read I Kings 11:1- 13 where it says he married many strange ungodly wives, turning his heart after their gods); I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whether thou passest over Jordon to go to possess it.” Even though God promised the land of Canaan to the children of Jacob, many never made it there; because many, being deceived, turned their hearts after other gods. Salva- tion is always of the heart, not of works! Deuteronomy 30:19-20, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you (for their learning and ours), that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and thy seed may live.” One’s choice makes all the difference, not only for our own life, but it also influences our chil- dren to the third and fourth generation! This choice was and is absolutely necessary, “that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, that thou mayest obey His voice, and thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy father, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give them.”
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