Ha Shem is Holiness and Sanctity
YHWH. His name itself is hallowed, holy. Sometimes we say "holy" so lightly, so trivially. What really is holy? Set-apart. YHWH. His name itself is a reflection upon His holiness. Let us not take His Name lightly. Let us not mention it trivially. Every time I think of it, my heart should remind me, for He is Holy.
I look upon YHWH as a maidservant looks to her mistress (Ps 123). She dares not look into her eyes. She lower her eyes, averting. As for YHWH, His countenance beholds the upright and the upright alone.
Besides someone talented and at something, say at playing the piano, I would feel hopelessly inadequate. That person, next to a master pianist, next to a professional, too, would feel hopelessly inadequate.
In the presense and in the holiness of the living YAH, would not you, I, and anyone else feel just so totally inadaquate. Even Daniel HaNavi, trembled. Even Yeshayahu, the great prophet who spoke divine words and revelations, out of whose mouth came forth oracles of God and the very Word of God Himself, even he felt wretched, unclean, and cursed. Woe is me!
The presence of God who is purity, cleanness, sanctity, holiness, in Himself would make the sinner fall down dead. The seemingly good man would feel dirty, unclean, and wretched. Why? He is a good man. He doen't steal, kill, or lie (much). The truth is, in the presence of God, our works, and we ourselves are nothing but filthy rags, and the word really means filthy menstrual cloths. Or imagine, a pile of sh-t.
Imagine a great king and ruler sitting on his throne. Imagine Solomon himself in all his splendour and glory. All his nobles, viceroys, subjects, all come to pay him homage, give his gifts, and curry his favor. In the great richness of the royal palace itself. The king commands his nobles to bring forth the gifts in honor of him. Imagine if a noble brings forth a mountain of sh-t. Another brings forth the aforementioned filthy rags. Presenting these before the king, they offer him the best of their abilities, the best that they could bring him, and they are so proud of it. They worked hard, toiled hard, did their very best, put their best effort at it, but to the rich king, it is still a pile of sh-t, it is still a dirty, filthy cloth. Abominable! How could you bring such a disgusting, reviling, thing before the king and present it to him as homage! The king would have your heads off! To kneel before the king and so say, "My lord, I bring before the best of my abilities, the hardest toil, my most treasured possession, and I present it to you, my king, that it may be pleasing, acceptable, and treasured in your most excellant sight!"
I've made my point. Case is closed. The king would not dream of accepting such a gift. With all his gold, splendour, riches, even silver would have been like common stones in Solomon's eyes.
So here I speak of holiness and sanctity. If in all our doing, we cannot even be holy enough to stand before God and be pleasing to Him. By myself, could I stand before Him, in His light and be perfectly perfect, totally without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, totally good, just, wise, loving, and in who I am good in His sight? Would He say to me, "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased."
Think a moment. Reflect upon your heart. Could I even stand if I saw God coming down in His perfect glory? Would I be pleasing in His sight? In the presence of the King of the Universe Melech Ha-Olam, Himself, would it really matter what my pastor said about me, what my teacher said about me, what my parents said about me? No, only what YHWH says of me would count.
The sheep and the goats. It really doesn't matter if I called Jesus my Lord and Savior, said the sinner's prayer five times a day, cast out legions and multitudes of demons, healed stadiumfulls of sick and hopeless people, raised the dead, called down fire from the sky and performed great and wondrous miracles that even the president of the United States holds me in awe. If God never knew me, then what would all that be? Useless. Wasted. Dung! For all eternity, all you would be - torment, regret in the world where the fire never dies and the worm is not quenched.
Hey, God is the one who calls. God is the one who chooses. And God is the one who makes us faithful! Only those called, chosen, and faithful will stand before Him for eternity. It is God who apprehends us, who called us by His eternal irresistable grace, and who chooses us though we did not chose Him. We would not have known Him except that He apprehended us, convicted us by His reality and holiness, and stuck us by His great power. Salvation is a miracle. He loved us first. There is nothing good in us to choose, want, or desire God. He called us, who were not his people, to be his people. Such is divine election. It is unquestionable. No one would dare question God, but neither dare I to presume upon Him. To those who did not know Him He revealed Himself. We often forget to realize we have done nothing to merit salvation. No, it is as simple as looking on Him whose sins we have nailed to the cross. They shall see Him whom they pierced. And then what? The spirit of grace and supplication leads them to repentence! Even repentence itself is a gift of God and a work of divine grace... mercy! Even that I should be allowed and given the grace to repent of my sins is itself unthinkable, incomprehensible! And so much more that I should be forgiven, and made a son of God!
There is nothing in me that is good, that would make me seek God and choose God. The fact is God found me, and put in me a desire for Him that would otherwise be impossible.
I can draw many conclusions on who the goats are, and God forbid that you or I should ever fall to such a reprehensible, perverted, twisted, and utterly lost state. It's not whether you or I deserve mercy or the grace of God. The fact is, the king extended his favor to some of those who brought forth a mountain of sh-t. Dare I say, that since he was forgiven, and the king removed all the sh-t from him, dare I expect the king to show me such favor when I bring before him a mountain of sh-t too? No of course not! The king was being merciful. God shows favor to whom he shows favor. God has mercy on whom he has mercy. None of us can ever claim favor before him, God shows partiality to no man. All of us are condemned by our very being. God is the same God who curses, and who blesses. God is the same God who strikes down, and who brings up. God is the same God who executes the judgments of His righteous fury, and the same God who provides atonement and redemption, an act of incomprehensible mercy, to the wretched sinner.
What strikes me about the goats is this. God did not know them. I can make two Scriptual conclusions on them.
According to John 17:
1) The goats did not have eternal life, obviously.
Eternal life is the Knowledge of God
The goats did not have eternal life.
Therefore the goats did not know God.
2) Whoever has eternal life lives in Christ, and Christ in Him
The goats did not have eternal life.
They did not live in Christ, nor Christ in them
3) Whoever is in Christ has the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The goats were not in Christ.
The goats did not have redemption, salvation, forgiveness of sin. (Col 1)
4) God did not know them.
Whoever loves God is known by Him.
Therefore the goats did not love God. (1 John)
5) The greatest commandment, according to Yeshua is to love God.
The goats did not love God.
The goats were did not keep God's commandments.
Which also can be proved because
6) Whoever loves God, keeps His commandments. (1 John 14)
The goats did not keep God's commandments.
The goats did not love God.
This can go on and on.
7) Whoever is in Christ has followed HIm, taken up their cross, been buried with Christ through the work of the cross and ressurected with Him, and lives the eternal life.
The goats did not have eternal life.
The goats were not in Christ.
Therefore, they did not obey Christ's command to take up their cross to follow Him.
Therefore they were not His disciples.
Therefore they were not His.
Therefore He did not keep them.
Therefore... before them and in them were death, sin, destruction, self, Satan, demons, the world, sinful society, sickness, disease, etc. etc. etc.
Yet what about the sheep.
1) God knew them.
Therefore they loved God.
Therefore God loved them (to love God is only possible if He loves us first!)
Therefore they kept His commandments. (As whoever loves God keeps His commandments)
Therefore they have eternal life, the very life of God lived in them. (Because His commandments are everlasting life)
Therefore they knew God.
Therefore they were disciples.
Therefore they have taken up their cross of follow Christ.
Therefore they loved their neighbour. (Because God loved them, they loved God, they were in Christ, they kept His commandsment, the second of which is to love their neighbour.
The list can go one. One was Light, one was darkness. One was truth, one was deception. Never was a contrast so sharply, clearly drawn. One was clean, the other unclean. One was holy, the other sinful. One was in God, one was without God.
Which one are you? By the grace of God each one of us stands. Even the keeping of His commandments is because:
1) He made a new covenant with us.
2) He put the torah in us, writing it on our hearts, therefore programming us already to be torah-obeservant, and much more so. How? Because we are in Christ, who was the perfection, fufilment, revelation, of the entire Torah itself, because the torah is the very personification of God and Christ was God, therefore Christ was the Torah. The Torah is life, Christ is life. Christ was the Word of God. The Torah was the Word of God. The Torah is pure and cleansing. And Christ was much more then the Torah! God is not a mere man. God is more than a man. Christ was not just a man, He was God. He was the walking Word of God. He was, and is, and is to come!
3) How did He put the torah into us? Because we are in Christ. Therefore we have been brought already into perfect Torah fulfilment. The Torah was our tutor. The Torah was a manifestation of God's holiness, God's set-apartness. The Torah showed us how far short we are from God. Above and Beyond us stands the Torah, the unchangeable standard of God. And the World beyond that barrier and beyond what we can see of God, that is the Torah, is a world unexplored by man. Christ has brought us into the World of God. Into the World of the Torah. Into the World of the Word. Otherwise unreachable. No, but that's where we sit, stand, and walk as sons of God.
Do you understand? In Christ, as sheep, as sons, as light, who we are is Christ, where we are is Christ, how we got there is Christ, how we live is Christ, how we breathe is Christ, how we live is Christ, we are in Christ!
THAT!... is eternal life. THAT! is holiness. That!... is everything so undescribably wonderful about our new life, our new body, every new and eternal. God is holy, holy, holy. God has made us holy, holy, holy. God is making us holy, holy, holy. God is going to make us, holy, holy, holy. What is the overiding truth? God has made us holy, holy, holy.
We are being transformed into His image and likeness day by day, but yes we have been, but yes we will be.
He took away our dung. We must first we willing ourselves to throw it away. He gave us the gifts. He took us by His hand. He made us clean, holy. Justification is that God has made us clean. Sanctification is that God has made us holy. And deception falls when we take only part of God and not His entire being. NO we cannot. He was, is, and is to come. Sanctification is the very fact that:
We forget God is very "dimensional", if i may say so. Often we reduce Him in our minds to fit our minds. Sometimes we see one part of Him and imagine it is the whole. Far from it! No, even more than three, four, or five-dimensional. He is "infinitely dimensional", meaning. He is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is holy, holy holy. There are all inescapable in indispensable parts of His nature. He is still One. Adonai Echad! He is One. He will forever be One. And of course He is "wholly other", as Karl Barth said. How little do I know Him. And the little I know is already beyond my mind. Yes, God is above and beyond my mind. He is Spirit! I need faith.... Truly in the presence of God nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing! If you and I really know Him as we should... the realities are endless... wait...the realities are eternal, infinite, unknowable, indescrible, + a thousand etceteras.
Really ridiculous is the fact that people think they can outthink or out do YHWH. No one can. Let no man make their own conclusion about God. Let no man have the utterly ridiculous and absorb presumption to presume upon Him and tka eHim for granted! Let us put our trust in Him and meditate, and dwell one, YHWH and YHWH alone! Let us know that His promises are a more than a fact!
Shema Yisrael. YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad!
(Deuteronomy 6:4 HOT) שׁמע ישׂראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃
A Song of degrees of David.
YHWH, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.
(Psalms 131:1-3 KJV)
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:1-16 KJV)
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
(Romans 11:30-35 KJV)
Ha Shem is Holiness and Sanctity
YHWH. His name itself is hallowed, holy. Sometimes we say "holy" so lightly, so trivially. What really is holy? Set-apart. YHWH. His name itself is a reflection upon His holiness. Let us not take His Name lightly. Let us not mention it trivially. Every time I think of it, my heart should remind me, for He is Holy.
I look upon YHWH as a maidservant looks to her mistress (Ps 123). She dares not look into her eyes. She lower her eyes, averting. As for YHWH, His countenance beholds the upright and the upright alone.
Besides someone talented and at something, say at playing the piano, I would feel hopelessly inadequate. That person, next to a master pianist, next to a professional, too, would feel hopelessly inadequate.
In the presense and in the holiness of the living YAH, would not you, I, and anyone else feel just so totally inadaquate. Even Daniel HaNavi, trembled. Even Yeshayahu, the great prophet who spoke divine words and revelations, out of whose mouth came forth oracles of God and the very Word of God Himself, even he felt wretched, unclean, and cursed. Woe is me!
The presence of God who is purity, cleanness, sanctity, holiness, in Himself would make the sinner fall down dead. The seemingly good man would feel dirty, unclean, and wretched. Why? He is a good man. He doen't steal, kill, or lie (much). The truth is, in the presence of God, our works, and we ourselves are nothing but filthy rags, and the word really means filthy menstrual cloths. Or imagine, a pile of sh-t.
Imagine a great king and ruler sitting on his throne. Imagine Solomon himself in all his splendour and glory. All his nobles, viceroys, subjects, all come to pay him homage, give his gifts, and curry his favor. In the great richness of the royal palace itself. The king commands his nobles to bring forth the gifts in honor of him. Imagine if a noble brings forth a mountain of sh-t. Another brings forth the aforementioned filthy rags. Presenting these before the king, they offer him the best of their abilities, the best that they could bring him, and they are so proud of it. They worked hard, toiled hard, did their very best, put their best effort at it, but to the rich king, it is still a pile of sh-t, it is still a dirty, filthy cloth. Abominable! How could you bring such a disgusting, reviling, thing before the king and present it to him as homage! The king would have your heads off! To kneel before the king and so say, "My lord, I bring before the best of my abilities, the hardest toil, my most treasured possession, and I present it to you, my king, that it may be pleasing, acceptable, and treasured in your most excellant sight!"
I've made my point. Case is closed. The king would not dream of accepting such a gift. With all his gold, splendour, riches, even silver would have been like common stones in Solomon's eyes.
So here I speak of holiness and sanctity. If in all our doing, we cannot even be holy enough to stand before God and be pleasing to Him. By myself, could I stand before Him, in His light and be perfectly perfect, totally without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, totally good, just, wise, loving, and in who I am good in His sight? Would He say to me, "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased."
Think a moment. Reflect upon your heart. Could I even stand if I saw God coming down in His perfect glory? Would I be pleasing in His sight? In the presence of the King of the Universe Melech Ha-Olam, Himself, would it really matter what my pastor said about me, what my teacher said about me, or what my parents said about me? No, only what YHWH says of me would count.
The sheep and the goats. It really doesn't matter if I called Jesus my Lord and Savior, said the sinner's prayer five times a day, cast out legions and multitudes of demons, healed stadiumfulls of sick and hopeless people, raised the dead, called down fire from the sky and performed great and wondrous miracles that even the president of the United States holds me in awe. If God never knew me, then what would all that be? Useless. Wasted. Dung! For all eternity, all you would be - torment, regret in the world where the fire never dies and the worm is not quenched.
Hey, God is the one who calls. God is the one who chooses. And God is the one who makes us faithful! Only those called, chosen, and faithful will stand before Him for eternity. It is God who apprehends us, who called us by His eternal irresistable grace, and who chooses us though we did not chose Him. We would not have known Him except that He apprehended us, convicted us by His reality and holiness, and stuck us by His great power. Salvation is a miracle. He loved us first. There is nothing good in us to choose, want, or desire God. He called us, who were not his people, to be his people. Such is divine election. It is unquestionable. No one would dare question God, but neither dare I to presume upon Him. To those who did not know Him He revealed Himself. We often forget to realize we have done nothing to merit salvation. No, it is as simple as looking on Him whose sins we have nailed to the cross. They shall see Him whom they pierced. And then what? The spirit of grace and supplication leads them to repentence! Even repentence itself is a gift of God and a work of divine grace... mercy! Even that I should be allowed and given the grace to repent of my sins is itself unthinkable, incomprehensible! And so much more that I should be forgiven, and made a son of God!
There is nothing in me that is good, that would make me seek God and choose God. The fact is God found me, and put in me a desire for Him that would otherwise be impossible.
I can draw many conclusions on who the goats are, and God forbid that you or I should ever fall to such a reprehensible, perverted, twisted, and utterly lost state. It's not whether you or I deserve mercy or the grace of God. The fact is, the king extended his favor to some of those who brought forth a mountain of sh-t. Dare I say, that since he was forgiven, and the king removed all the sh-t from him, dare I expect the king to show me such favor when I bring before him a mountain of sh-t too? No of course not! The king was being merciful. God shows favor to whom he shows favor. God has mercy on whom he has mercy. None of us can ever claim favor before him, God shows partiality to no man. All of us are condemned by our very being. God is the same God who curses, and who blesses. God is the same God who strikes down, and who brings up. God is the same God who executes the judgments of His righteous fury, and the same God who provides atonement and redemption, an act of incomprehensible mercy, to the wretched sinner.
What strikes me about the goats is this. God did not know them. I can make two Scriptual conclusions on them.
According to John 17:
1) The goats did not have eternal life, obviously.
Eternal life is the Knowledge of God
The goats did not have eternal life.
Therefore the goats did not know God.
2) Whoever has eternal life lives in Christ, and Christ in Him
The goats did not have eternal life.
They did not live in Christ, nor Christ in them
3) Whoever is in Christ has the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The goats were not in Christ.
The goats did not have redemption, salvation, forgiveness of sin. (Col 1)
4) God did not know them.
Whoever loves God is known by Him.
Therefore the goats did not love God. (1 John)
5) The greatest commandment, according to Yeshua is to love God.
The goats did not love God.
The goats were did not keep God's commandments.
Which also can be proved because
6) Whoever loves God, keeps His commandments. (1 John 14)
The goats did not keep God's commandments.
The goats did not love God.
This can go on and on.
7) Whoever is in Christ has followed HIm, taken up their cross, been buried with Christ through the work of the cross and ressurected with Him, and lives the eternal life.
The goats did not have eternal life.
The goats were not in Christ.
Therefore, they did not obey Christ's command to take up their cross to follow Him.
Therefore they were not His disciples.
Therefore they were not His.
Therefore He did not keep them.
Therefore... before them and in them were death, sin, destruction, self, Satan, demons, the world, sinful society, sickness, disease, etc. etc. etc.
Yet what about the sheep.
1) God knew them.
Therefore they loved God.
Therefore God loved them (to love God is only possible if He loves us first!)
Therefore they kept His commandments. (As whoever loves God keeps His commandments)
Therefore they have eternal life, the very life of God lived in them. (Because His commandments are everlasting life)
Therefore they knew God.
Therefore they were disciples.
Therefore they have taken up their cross of follow Christ.
Therefore they loved their neighbour. (Because God loved them, they loved God, they were in Christ, they kept His commandsment, the second of which is to love their neighbour.
The list can go one. One was Light, one was darkness. One was truth, one was deception. Never was a contrast so sharply, clearly drawn. One was clean, the other unclean. One was holy, the other sinful. One was in God, one was without God.
Which one are you? By the grace of God each one of us stands. Even the keeping of His commandments is because:
1) He made a new covenant with us.
2) He put the torah in us, writing it on our hearts, therefore programming us already to be torah-obeservant, and much more so. How? Because we are in Christ, who was the perfection, fufilment, revelation, of the entire Torah itself, because the torah is the very personification of God and Christ was God, therefore Christ was the Torah. The Torah is life, Christ is life. Christ was the Word of God. The Torah was the Word of God. The Torah is pure and cleansing. And Christ was much more then the Torah! God is not a mere man. God is more than a man. Christ was not just a man, He was God. He was the walking Word of God. He was, and is, and is to come!
3) How did He put the torah into us? Because we are in Christ. Therefore we have been brought already into perfect Torah fulfilment. The Torah was our tutor. The Torah was a manifestation of God's holiness, God's set-apartness. The Torah showed us how far short we are from God. Above and Beyond us stands the Torah, the unchangeable standard of God. And the World beyond that barrier and beyond what we can see of God, that is the Torah, is a world unexplored by man. Christ has brought us into the World of God. Into the World of the Torah. Into the World of the Word. Otherwise unreachable. No, but that's where we sit, stand, and walk as sons of God.
Do you understand? In Christ, as sheep, as sons, as light, who we are is Christ, where we are is Christ, how we got there is Christ, how we live is Christ, how we breathe is Christ, how we live is Christ, we are in Christ!
THAT!... is eternal life. THAT! is holiness. That!... is everything so undescribably wonderful about our new life, our new body, every new and eternal. God is holy, holy, holy. God has made us holy, holy, holy. God is making us holy, holy, holy. God is going to make us, holy, holy, holy. What is the overiding truth? God has made us holy, holy, holy.
We are being transformed into His image and likeness day by day, but yes we have been, but yes we will be.
He took away our dung. We must first we willing ourselves to throw it away. He gave us the gifts. He took us by His hand. He made us clean, holy. Justification is that God has made us clean. Sanctification is that God has made us holy. And deception falls when we take only part of God and not His entire being. NO we cannot. He was, is, and is to come. Sanctification is the very fact that:
We forget God is very "dimensional", if i may say so. Often we reduce Him in our minds to fit our minds. Sometimes we see one part of Him and imagine it is the whole. Far from it! No, even more than three, four, or five-dimensional. He is "infinitely dimensional", meaning. He is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is holy, holy holy. There are all inescapable in indispensable parts of His nature. He is still One. Adonai Echad! He is One. He will forever be One. And of course He is "wholly other", as Karl Barth said. How little do I know Him. And the little I know is already beyond my mind. Yes, God is above and beyond my mind. He is Spirit! I need faith.... Truly in the presence of God nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing! If you and I really know Him as we should... the realities are endless... wait...the realities are eternal, infinite, unknowable, indescrible, + a thousand etceteras.
Really ridiculous is the fact that people think they can outthink or out do YHWH. No one can. Let no man make their own conclusion about God. Let no man have the utterly ridiculous and absorb presumption to presume upon Him and tka eHim for granted! Let us put our trust in Him and meditate, and dwell one, YHWH and YHWH alone! Let us know that His promises are a more than a fact!
Shema Yisrael. YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad!
(Deuteronomy 6:4 HOT) שׁמע ישׂראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃
A Song of degrees of David.
YHWH, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.
(Psalms 131:1-3 KJV)
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:1-16 KJV)
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
(Romans 11:30-35 KJV)
Ha Shem is Holiness and Sanctity
YHWH. His name itself is hallowed, holy. Sometimes we say "holy" so lightly, so trivially. What really is holy? Set-apart. YHWH. His name itself is a reflection upon His holiness. Let us not take His Name lightly. Let us not mention it trivially. Every time I think of it, my heart should remind me, for He is Holy.
I look upon YHWH as a maidservant looks to her mistress (Ps 123). She dares not look into her eyes. She lower her eyes, averting. As for YHWH, His countenance beholds the upright and the upright alone.
Besides someone talented and at something, say at playing the piano, I would feel hopelessly inadequate. That person, next to a master pianist, next to a professional, too, would feel hopelessly inadequate.
In the presense and in the holiness of the living YAH, would not you, I, and anyone else feel just so totally inadaquate. Even Daniel HaNavi, trembled. Even Yeshayahu, the great prophet who spoke divine words and revelations, out of whose mouth came forth oracles of God and the very Word of God Himself, even he felt wretched, unclean, and cursed. Woe is me!
The presence of God who is purity, cleanness, sanctity, holiness, in Himself would make the sinner fall down dead. The seemingly good man would feel dirty, unclean, and wretched. Why? He is a good man. He doen't steal, kill, or lie (much). The truth is, in the presence of God, our works, and we ourselves are nothing but filthy rags, and the word really means filthy menstrual cloths. Or imagine, a pile of sh-t.
Imagine a great king and ruler sitting on his throne. Imagine Solomon himself in all his splendour and glory. All his nobles, viceroys, subjects, all come to pay him homage, give his gifts, and curry his favor. In the great richness of the royal palace itself. The king commands his nobles to bring forth the gifts in honor of him. Imagine if a noble brings forth a mountain of sh-t. Another brings forth the aforementioned filthy rags. Presenting these before the king, they offer him the best of their abilities, the best that they could bring him, and they are so proud of it. They worked hard, toiled hard, did their very best, put their best effort at it, but to the rich king, it is still a pile of sh-t, it is still a dirty, filthy cloth. Abominable! How could you bring such a disgusting, reviling, thing before the king and present it to him as homage! The king would have your heads off! To kneel before the king and so say, "My lord, I bring before the best of my abilities, the hardest toil, my most treasured possession, and I present it to you, my king, that it may be pleasing, acceptable, and treasured in your most excellant sight!"
I've made my point. Case is closed. The king would not dream of accepting such a gift. With all his gold, splendour, riches, even silver would have been like common stones in Solomon's eyes.
So here I speak of holiness and sanctity. If in all our doing, we cannot even be holy enough to stand before God and be pleasing to Him. By myself, could I stand before Him, in His light and be perfectly perfect, totally without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, totally good, just, wise, loving, and in who I am good in His sight? Would He say to me, "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased."
Think a moment. Reflect upon your heart. Could I even stand if I saw God coming down in His perfect glory? Would I be pleasing in His sight? In the presence of the King of the Universe Melech Ha-Olam, Himself, would it really matter what my pastor said about me, what my teacher said about me, or what my parents said about me? No, only what YHWH says of me would count.
The sheep and the goats. It really doesn't matter if I called Jesus my Lord and Savior, said the sinner's prayer five times a day, cast out legions and multitudes of demons, healed stadiumfulls of sick and hopeless people, raised the dead, called down fire from the sky and performed great and wondrous miracles that even the president of the United States holds me in awe. If God never knew me, then what would all that be? Useless. Wasted. Dung! For all eternity, all you would be - torment, regret in the world where the fire never dies and the worm is not quenched.
Hey, God is the one who calls. God is the one who chooses. And God is the one who makes us faithful! Only those called, chosen, and faithful will stand before Him for eternity. It is God who apprehends us, who called us by His eternal irresistable grace, and who chooses us though we did not chose Him. We would not have known Him except that He apprehended us, convicted us by His reality and holiness, and stuck us by His great power. Salvation is a miracle. He loved us first. There is nothing good in us to choose, want, or desire God. He called us, who were not his people, to be his people. Such is divine election. It is unquestionable. No one would dare question God, but neither dare I to presume upon Him. To those who did not know Him He revealed Himself. We often forget to realize we have done nothing to merit salvation. No, it is as simple as looking on Him whose sins we have nailed to the cross. They shall see Him whom they pierced. And then what? The spirit of grace and supplication leads them to repentence! Even repentence itself is a gift of God and a work of divine grace... mercy! Even that I should be allowed and given the grace to repent of my sins is itself unthinkable, incomprehensible! And so much more that I should be forgiven, and made a son of God!
There is nothing in me that is good, that would make me seek God and choose God. The fact is God found me, and put in me a desire for Him that would otherwise be impossible.
I can draw many conclusions on who the goats are, and God forbid that you or I should ever fall to such a reprehensible, perverted, twisted, and utterly lost state. It's not whether you or I deserve mercy or the grace of God. The fact is, the king extended his favor to some of those who brought forth a mountain of sh-t. Dare I say, that since he was forgiven, and the king removed all the sh-t from him, dare I expect the king to show me such favor when I bring before him a mountain of sh-t too? No of course not! The king was being merciful. God shows favor to whom he shows favor. God has mercy on whom he has mercy. None of us can ever claim favor before him, God shows partiality to no man. All of us are condemned by our very being. God is the same God who curses, and who blesses. God is the same God who strikes down, and who brings up. God is the same God who executes the judgments of His righteous fury, and the same God who provides atonement and redemption, an act of incomprehensible mercy, to the wretched sinner.
What strikes me about the goats is this. God did not know them. I can make two Scriptual conclusions on them.
According to John 17:
1) The goats did not have eternal life, obviously.
Eternal life is the Knowledge of God
The goats did not have eternal life.
Therefore the goats did not know God.
2) Whoever has eternal life lives in Christ, and Christ in Him
The goats did not have eternal life.
They did not live in Christ, nor Christ in them
3) Whoever is in Christ has the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The goats were not in Christ.
The goats did not have redemption, salvation, forgiveness of sin. (Col 1)
4) God did not know them.
Whoever loves God is known by Him.
Therefore the goats did not love God. (1 John)
5) The greatest commandment, according to Yeshua is to love God.
The goats did not love God.
The goats were did not keep God's commandments.
Which also can be proved because
6) Whoever loves God, keeps His commandments. (1 John 14)
The goats did not keep God's commandments.
The goats did not love God.
This can go on and on.
7) Whoever is in Christ has followed HIm, taken up their cross, been buried with Christ through the work of the cross and ressurected with Him, and lives the eternal life.
The goats did not have eternal life.
The goats were not in Christ.
Therefore, they did not obey Christ's command to take up their cross to follow Him.
Therefore they were not His disciples.
Therefore they were not His.
Therefore He did not keep them.
Therefore... before them and in them were death, sin, destruction, self, Satan, demons, the world, sinful society, sickness, disease, etc. etc. etc.
Yet what about the sheep.
1) God knew them.
Therefore they loved God.
Therefore God loved them (to love God is only possible if He loves us first!)
Therefore they kept His commandments. (As whoever loves God keeps His commandments)
Therefore they have eternal life, the very life of God lived in them. (Because His commandments are everlasting life)
Therefore they knew God.
Therefore they were disciples.
Therefore they have taken up their cross of follow Christ.
Therefore they loved their neighbour. (Because God loved them, they loved God, they were in Christ, they kept His commandsment, the second of which is to love their neighbour.
The list can go one. One was Light, one was darkness. One was truth, one was deception. Never was a contrast so sharply, clearly drawn. One was clean, the other unclean. One was holy, the other sinful. One was in God, one was without God.
Which one are you? By the grace of God each one of us stands. Even the keeping of His commandments is because:
1) He made a new covenant with us.
2) He put the torah in us, writing it on our hearts, therefore programming us already to be torah-obeservant, and much more so. How? Because we are in Christ, who was the perfection, fufilment, revelation, of the entire Torah itself, because the torah is the very personification of God and Christ was God, therefore Christ was the Torah. The Torah is life, Christ is life. Christ was the Word of God. The Torah was the Word of God. The Torah is pure and cleansing. And Christ was much more then the Torah! God is not a mere man. God is more than a man. Christ was not just a man, He was God. He was the walking Word of God. He was, and is, and is to come!
3) How did He put the torah into us? Because we are in Christ. Therefore we have been brought already into perfect Torah fulfilment. The Torah was our tutor. The Torah was a manifestation of God's holiness, God's set-apartness. The Torah showed us how far short we are from God. Above and Beyond us stands the Torah, the unchangeable standard of God. And the World beyond that barrier and beyond what we can see of God, that is the Torah, is a world unexplored by man. Christ has brought us into the World of God. Into the World of the Torah. Into the World of the Word. Otherwise unreachable. No, but that's where we sit, stand, and walk as sons of God.
Do you understand? In Christ, as sheep, as sons, as light, who we are is Christ, where we are is Christ, how we got there is Christ, how we live is Christ, how we breathe is Christ, how we live is Christ, we are in Christ!
THAT!... is eternal life. THAT! is holiness. That!... is everything so undescribably wonderful about our new life, our new body, every new and eternal. God is holy, holy, holy. God has made us holy, holy, holy. God is making us holy, holy, holy. God is going to make us, holy, holy, holy. What is the overiding truth? God has made us holy, holy, holy.
We are being transformed into His image and likeness day by day, but yes we have been, but yes we will be.
He took away our dung. We must first we willing ourselves to throw it away. He gave us the gifts. He took us by His hand. He made us clean, holy. Justification is that God has made us clean. Sanctification is that God has made us holy. And deception falls when we take only part of God and not His entire being. NO we cannot. He was, is, and is to come. Sanctification is the very fact that:
We forget God is very "dimensional", if i may say so. Often we reduce Him in our minds to fit our minds. Sometimes we see one part of Him and imagine it is the whole. Far from it! No, even more than three, four, or five-dimensional. He is "infinitely dimensional", meaning. He is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is holy, holy holy. There are all inescapable in indispensable parts of His nature. He is still One. Adonai Echad! He is One. He will forever be One. And of course He is "wholly other", as Karl Barth said. How little do I know Him. And the little I know is already beyond my mind. Yes, God is above and beyond my mind. He is Spirit! I need faith.... Truly in the presence of God nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing! If you and I really know Him as we should... the realities are endless... wait...the realities are eternal, infinite, unknowable, indescrible, + a thousand etceteras.
Really ridiculous is the fact that people think they can outthink or out do YHWH. No one can. Let no man make their own conclusion about God. Let no man have the utterly ridiculous and absorb presumption to presume upon Him and tka eHim for granted! Let us put our trust in Him and meditate, and dwell one, YHWH and YHWH alone! Let us know that His promises are a more than a fact!
Shema Yisrael. YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad!
(Deuteronomy 6:4 HOT) שׁמע ישׂראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃
A Song of degrees of David.
YHWH, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.
(Psalms 131:1-3 KJV)
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:1-16 KJV)
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
(Romans 11:30-35 KJV)
