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What Difference Does It Make? (Part 7) The Mystery Of Godliness
By Ron Webster October 2023
day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. (How can one not forgive as Christ hath forgiven us? (Eph- esians 4:32). “And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them” (Genesis 50:19-20). Our choices do make a difference to change the course of history! What, in the Hebrew, is a godly person? Godly (2623-is a person with great commitment to follow God’s will and purpose). A pious person is one who shows great loyalty and devotion to almighty God. Malachi 2:4-7 gives us the what and why we are to be godly. “Ye shall know that I have sent this (and all commandments) unto you, that My covenant (I will be your God, and I will meet your every need) might be with Levi (those who were the in- tercessors for the people), saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace (life as we were created to live); and I gave them to him for the fear within he feared Me, and was afraid before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with Me in peace and equity (4334-with a system of law that is a more flex- ible addition to ordinary common and statute law and is designed to protect rights and achieve just settlements in cases where ordinary legal settlement may be to strict, is a reprove with fairness for the meek of the earth, to level the field). For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge (to know the purpose and will of God according to His every word), and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.” Most of us are too preoccupied with our own thoughts of our daily lives that we fail to see the hand of God in everything, preserving a faithful remnant. Left to ourselves when we turn our hearts away from our Lord God and Creator, we always degenerate to our lowest state, as the Apostle Paul describes in Romans 1:17-32 as “reprobate.” It came down to this when God took the lives of all living creatures save those on the Ark with Noah and his family. When evil prospers, it is very easy to give up! But King David ex- presses his confidence in his Lord and Savior in Psalm chapter thirty seven with these words; “Fret not” but “trust in the Lord.” “Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.” “Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.” “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous (right thinkers) forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is merciful, and lendeth; and His seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.” He “forsaketh not His saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.” Read this entire chapter! Don’t be envious of the foolish when they prosper. After the sons of Israel were safely provided for in Egypt, they be- came complacent even in their misery, forgetting God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14-17; 15:13-21; 17:1-9. Did they also forget God’s faithfulness to Abraham in Genesis chapter twenty two where Abraham finally learned obedience by the things he suffered to trust God to fulfill what He promised, even if He had to raise his son from the dead? Abraham is praised for his faith in Hebrews 11:8-19. Even though he wavered at times, his faith persevered to the end! God always provides a way, just as the Apostle Paul states in I Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation (or testing) taken you but such as is common to man: But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be (tested) above that which ye are able; but will with the (test- ing) also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Even with Job, who lived before Abraham, God had considered Job’s limits in Job 1:12 and again in Job 2:6. Paul additionally states in Ro- mans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His pur- pose.” His purpose has always been as stated in II Peter 3:9, “that none should perish, but all should come to repentance.” It has nothing to do with being chosen, but all to do with our choice to believe, trust, and obey His every Word! The main purpose of a faithful remnant was to be a light of truth unto all the world, first commanded in Deuteronomy 4:1-9, not to “add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it.” But they did evil in the sight of God. The Lord spoke to Isaiah in Isaiah 8:11-15 instructing him that he “should not walk in the way of this people, nor agree with those who want a compact with Assyria, so as not to fear their fear, nor be afraid. But, Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself (for He is your God); and let Him be your fear… And He shall be your sanctuary. But for a stone of stumbling and a rock Are we, today, any less responsible to know God’s Word, to walk with God in peace and equity, turning many away from iniquity, the knowledge of evil. Why would anyone ask us of the reason of the hope that is in us ( I Peter 3:15), if we did not sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and lives, and be ready always to give an answer to every man with meekness and fear, the reason of the hope that is in us? Maybe we are as guilty as the priests of Israel in Malachi 2:8-9 when the Lord said to them, “But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have cor- rupted the covenant of Levi,” that which establishes them as a set apart people, as priests of God to make intersession for many, between God and man in peace and equity. “Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways but have been partial in the law.” (Verses 11-12) “For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense (the prayer of the saints) shall be of-
sibilities over to the world, and now we don’t like how they are taking care of them. Long ago we turned our children’s education over to the Government. Long ago we also turned our securities only found in our Creator over to corporate executives for insurances of all kinds — home, auto, health, and even retirement, all of which are very much government regulated, and now we do not like it! In our misery, we curse our government, and the evil ones using our tax dollars to man- date how we must think and live for the “good” of all. We have rejected our King of kings as Israel did in Judges 8:22-23, and I Samuel 8:5-8 for a man to rule and fight for them. Eventually crying out for His cru- cifixion in John 19:15, because He did not throw off the Roman rule by establishing His kingdom! As with all generations, if we don’t learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. How much more do we need to suffer before we learn obedience, and walk by every Word that has proceeded out of the mouth of God? But God in His compassion, is merciful “not willing that any should perish, but all come to repentance,” giving Israel hope of a future. Isaiah 9:2, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” That light was from the beginning (John 1:1- 10), for, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him: and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1-3 makes a clear statement that Jesus, the Son of God, created all things, for nothing was created that He did not create; being equal with the Father both as God; His words being the essence of truth by which we know both the Father and the Son. “In Him was life (for “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7; “and the Life (of the Spirit) was the Light of men. And the Light (since the knowledge of evil was brought into the world now) shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not, (could not even begin to understand it, let alone master it)… That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world (since creation) and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own (mankind), and His own received Him not.” Generally speaking, most of creation has not received Him, the Son of God as their Lord God and Creator, to walk in the light as He is in the Light, the light of life. Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is what we must live by (Matthew 4:4)! But man is continually adding to, or diminishing from His every Word. (2.) Secondly, He loved mankind as Himself with compassion, to lay down His life because of His abundant mercy, making it possible to justly “forgive us (I John 1:9) our sins, and to cleans us from all unrighteousness.” He created the law by the New Covenant to bring peace and equity between God and man, making it equally possible for all to be forgiven, no matter what our sins. (Ephesians 1:7) “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.” And in Colossians 2:13, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Compassion and mercy are inseparable. God commands us in Zechariah 7:9-11, 13, “Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and com- passion every man his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the father- less, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to (listen).” John also states in I John 3:17, “But whosoever hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and (witholdeth)compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” “But as many as receive Him (the Word, every word, that none per- ish, but all come to repentance,” II Peter 3:9), to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (John 1:12). For His name represents everything He is, as described by His every word, for “the Word was God.” God has given every man plenty of good reasons to believe, trust, and obey Him since creation, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them (the true Light which lighteth every man which cometh into the world, John 1:9); for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they (or we) are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19- 20). The children of Israel, “when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful: but became vain in their imaginations… changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man… and their foolish hearts was darkened.” (Romans 1:21-23). Likewise we today seem to be following the same path of destruction. If this isn’t enough to convince us, who name the Name of Christ, possibly even in vain, to repent and put our faith and hope in the promises of a faithful and loving Creator, instead of the world, then I don’t know what will! Jesus has even more to say on forgiveness in Matthew 18:21-22, Peter asks Jesus, “How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Then to the end of chapter 18 He likens a servant that could not pay a debt to his king to the kingdom of heaven. The servant pleaded for patience that he would eventually pay. Out of compas- sion the King forgave his debt. This servant went to one of his fellow ser- vants that owed him far less and threw him into prison because he could not pay. When the king heard what this man had done, he was angry say- ing, “O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou de- sired it me: should not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormenter, ‘til he should pay all that was due him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” “Even as God for Christ’s sake hath for- given you.” (Ephesians 4:32b). After the demise of the two houses of Israel, what now is God’s pur- pose for the Jewish people? First let me ask: Does God’s plan and purpose planned before creation center around the children of Israel, the Jewish people as a special chosen people, or all of mankind? God’s plan and purpose does not center on any group of people, ex- cept the saints, the faithful remnant, to be a light to the rest of the world! As I have stated many times previously, (II Peter 3:8-9) “The Lord is not slack concerning (all of His) promises, as some men count slackness!” This is not referring to creation or anything else that, “one day with the Lord as a thousand years as one day…” but is (specifi- cally referring to His) “longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” This is one blatant attempt at dismissing God’s very straight forward explanation of His creation, at the expense of His long suffering. Next time, more hope through the promises of the New Covenant, and the mysteries of the promises given to Eve in Genesis 3:15. Yes, God does know our choices do make all the difference and so should we! Godliness is being like God in the ways which He has commanded us to live! To love other s with compassion and mercy, forgiving other as Christ hath forgiven us. A godly man hangs all the law upon the two greatest statements of all the law in Matthew 22:35-40, to make a system of law that is a more flexible addition to ordinary common and statute law; Equity. God did this for us, and out of gratitude expects us to do the same with others. Godliness is impossible without one’s complete faith in God’s wisdom as expressed in His every word. Proverbs 8:10-13 state: (1.) Accepting wisdoms discipline is better than silver or gold. (2.) God’s wisdom is better than riches and more desirable than all pleasure. (3.) God’s wisdom is discerning and recognizing right things. (4.) God’s wisdom is pure and hates evil. sacred awe, exhibited especially in action of the living attributes of a Supreme Divinity: As a God-ward attitude, that does that which is well pleas- ing to our God: Having a reverence for God’s great love, which is full of compassion with mercy and grace, to meet our every need. One cannot be a godly person, without being first of all a righteous person, a right thinker; and that only comes from knowing God. So why is godliness still a great mystery even today? Is it perhaps we are no different than Cain when in Genesis 4:9, after killing his brother in a non- justifiable anger, he said to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” As a godly person, yes we are! Jesus states in Matthew 22:23 the greatest of the com- mandments: The first is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” This is the beginning of a godly person. “The second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.” This is what Jesus said is to be a godly person. The law and the prophets were never intended to be done away with, as long as the knowledge of evil is present in our world. Furthermore Jesus said that all the other laws are to be hung on these two for peace and equity. (4334) as a system of law that is a more flexible addition to ordinary common and statute law. Designed to protect rights and achieve just settlements in cases where ordinary legal settlement may be to strict. Making it possible to reprove with fairness the meek and repentant of the earth, by leveling the field as Jesus did by making it possible for us to be forgiven. A godly person is one that lives as we were created to live. Jesus showed us by example how to live that godly life. (1.) First He loved (26-“agape,” perfect love) with all His heart, soul, and mind in that He planned before creation everything we needed to live as He intended us to live for eternity. (I John 3:1). “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” (I John 4:8b-12). “God is love. In this was (made known) the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the (price paid) for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another… If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. (Verses 16-18) “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us, God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so we are in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him, because He first loved us.” (3.) A godly person forgives others as the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 4:32, “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Why do so many that name the name of Christ and are grateful for God’s forgiveness, refuse to forgive others of their offences as Christ has forgiven them? Could it be because the price to forgive seems too high? What if God thought the price of His Son crucified was too much to give? We would all be without hope! Do we realize when we recite the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) we are asking God to forgive us as we forgive others? Then Jesus continues in verses 14 and 15, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
After Cain slew Able, God raised up Seth (Genesis 4:25). Seth was the seed that would start the line descending from Eve to bring forth the One to destroy the power of Satan in Luke 3:23-38. Gene- sis 4:26 states when Seth’s son Enos was born: “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” When Noah was called to build the ark, April 2024 “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.” (I Timothy 3:16). Why would the Apostle Paul say this about godliness? Apparently he believed most did not grasp the meaning of the word godliness and how it relates to their daily life. What is godli- ness? In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he spends a lot of time describing what a godly person looks like. In I Timothy 1:3-8 Paul
there were only two other godly men alive, Seth’s son Methuselah, Noah’s grandfather who died the year the flood came, and Lemech, Seth’s grandson, Noah’s father who died five years before the flood, to help and encourage Noah in the 120 years of building the ark. All the rest of the wicked world was taken by the flood except Noah and his family, the only ones left of the faithful remnant of which the Christ was to be born. Since the flood, Noah lived about two years short of Abram’s birth. Then about 100 years after the flood, to preserve a faithful remnant, God confounded the languages of men to slow down the spread of evil, in that He promised Noah never again destroy the world with a flood. Shem, the son of Noah, lived 148 years after Abraham was born, and died 48 years after Isaac was born. Isaac dies (Genesis 35:27-29) after the 12 sons of Jacob (Israel) were born. Since Noah died, there were still seven of the nine generations alive when Abram was a young man, as listed with those faithful (Luke 3:1-34), to en- courage Abram. Then about twenty years after Jacob was born, the last of the generations prior to Jacob except Isaac his father had all passed away. Is a righteous man the same as a godly man? Yes they are! For the def- inition of the word in both Hebrew and Greek is; right thinking which always produces right living. So why did Paul consider godliness to be yet a great mystery? We spend way to much time debating issues as to which side is true, instead of searching the scriptures to know what is right and true. Quite often there are errors on both sides, by giving heed to fables, conceived in our imagination, which only minister more questions, rather than godly ed- ifying which is in faith. “Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (Verses 4-7). says “don’t follow false teachers, but teach the truth.” “Now the end of this commandment is Charity (26-’Agape,’ perfect love) out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and faith unfeigned” (without hypocrisy). But, some having turned aside unto vain arguing, “desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.” Why is the law good? With it, God has told us what truth is, right and ac- ceptable, as well as how truth is distorted, bent, warped, and perverted by the lies of Satan. Truth, the knowledge of good, can be known. But the knowledge of evil can never be completely known, for it only gets worse with time! Read Romans 1:17-32 which describes this evil progression. In I Timothy 1:9 he states, “the law is not made for a righteous man.”
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God is always faithful to make a way to pre- serve the faithful rem- nant. When only Isaac and Jacob were left to encourage the sons of Jacob, God had al- ready prepared a wide- spread famine where Jacob and his twelve sons ended up in Egypt, where there was food stored up for seven years by Joseph, the youngest son that was sold as a slave by his brothers. When Jacob died in Egypt, Joseph’s broth- ers began to fear him. But “Joseph said unto them, Fear not: For am I in the place of God (to seek revenge)? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass as it is this
of offence to both houses of Israel, for a gin (a net) and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be bro- ken, and be snared, and be taken.” They continued in their blindness, becoming reprobates, until both houses of Israel were carried into captivity. Even there, God provided hope and comfort to the faithful in their captivity. I will have more on this subject later. Are we also going down this same road to destruc- tion? God continues in Isaiah 8:16-22, “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples,” the faith- ful remnant that follows God’s every Word from a heart that is set apart, sanctified to be a light of truth unto the world. And the Son of God, who said “I will wait upon the Lord, (the Father) that hideth His face from the house of Jacob. And I will look for Him. Be- hold I (the Son) and the children (the true children, spoken of in John chapter 8, of which these Pharisees were not!) whom the Lord (the Father) hath given me (John 17:12 and John 18:9) are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, ‘Seek unto them that have familiar spirits (mediums), and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter,’ Should not a people seek unto their God, (than) for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word (by adding or dimin- ishing from it), it is because there is no light in them.” Are we any different today? “And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead (hard pressed) and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hun- gry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their King and their God, and look upward. And they shall look into the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dim- ness of anguish; and they shall be driven to dark- ness.” Are we going down this same road by not taking re- sponsibility for our bad choices, turning our hearts after the world? Having turned our God given respon- Neither does the definition of the word “godly” change from the Old Testament Hebrew to the New Testament Greek. The Greek words translated godly or godliness (2150, 2152, 2153, 2316, 3317) are all defined as living in (1.) The First Covenant is not done away with, just be- cause it is called “old,” for it is a forever covenant (Genesis 9:16). Yes, there were parts which decayed and waxed old, made ready by the new, to vanish away, and did eventually vanish away. (2.) Yes, the Levitical priesthood is done away with, ever since Jesus has now become our High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, a forever High Priest with the fulfill- ment of the New Covenant. Read Hebrews chapter 5, 7 and 8; which states that Christ the Son of God is a forever High Priest. Furthermore in I Peter 2:9 it also states, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy na- tion, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Yes, we as Saints, Jews and Gen- tiles alike, are to continue to fulfill the role God has given to all the saints, to be sanctified (to be set apart from that which is common, for our given purpose), and go and preach to all the world the gospel of repentance and for- giveness (Luke 24:47). The “Ekklesia”, the Church, the same Church that Stephen in Acts 7:38 describes as being in the wilderness. And Paul the Apostle states in I Corinthians 10:4 of which they “all drank from that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” We have not replaced Israel for the children of Israel are still the children of Israel! We today, as saints of God, have become one with the saints of the Old Testament, to be a bearer of the light of God’s truth to the whole world (Luke 24:47). fered unto My name, and a pure offering: for My name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, the table of the Lord is polluted (but we say, what difference does it make!); and the fruit thereof, even his meat is con- temptible.” Much of the world does not know whether to hate us, or God, because of our hypocrisy! Some have already questioned this by asking; Is this not dealing with the Old Covenant and the Levitical priest- hood, animal sacrifices and the law which has been done away with? Therefore God accepts us the way we are. This is such a great distortion of truth by Satan, the father of lies! (3.) Yes, all the animal sacrifices are been done away with since the veil of the temple was rent from top to bot- tom in Matthew 27:50-51, with Jesus becoming “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), all planned from before creation (Revelation 13:8). (4.) The law was not done away with. The only excep- tion to this are the laws concerning the temporary atone- ment, the blood of animals which only covered man’s sins, forgiven, so we could know God and have fellowship with Him. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgive- ness of sin (Hebrews 9:22). But after the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, fulfilling the New Covenant atonement; “if we confess (in repentance of) our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and (now) to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9) given the Holy Spirit can now indwell. Prior to the Lamb slain He was just, only be- cause of He faithfully promised to be that Lamb slain, planned before creation as His abundance of grace to meet our every need. Obviously some of the law had to change to accommodate the New Covenant, but the law was not done away with.
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