Post by Les Brewer on Feb 10, 2016 15:18:40 GMT
IT’S THE SEASON OF REASON:
Our God is a just and righteous God, perfect in all his ways. His eyes beholding the good and the evil of this present age. Today we are beholding the rampant degradation of our present age and a need for revival in the land. Let us remember the Old Covenant is the School Master for the New Covenant, the types, figures, and shadows of things to come, and a good case study of the nature of God. God says of himself “I am the Lord your God and I never change”. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever! The passage below concerns a reformation of character and conduct concerning the nation of Israel. We can use this as a model for today.
(16) Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
(17) Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
(18) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
(19) If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
(20) But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
(21) How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isaiah 1:16-21 KJV
Can you see the similarity between the days of Isaiah and the present and Israel and the church? God had set up a sacrificial system to forgive repentance. God is holy, Jesus declared, then gave an imperative “ be ye holy also”. Moral elevation has always been an objective which repentance demands. However, man has no intrinsic power eradicate the nature of sin. Today there are those whom harbor a belief in the power of positive thinking and positive confession a heresy spearheaded by an apostate preacher/psychiatrist. The answer to man’s fallen state is a power from outside of himself, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. God works his renewal, reviving, reformation, and refines us the several steps of grace.
Challenges us through confrontation with the truth of our condition.
Commands us to repent from the transgressions of our condition.
Conditions us through appealing to our sense of reason.
Consoles us in the knowledge of his forgiveness.
Confirms us through the renewal of our commitment.
The gospel clearly sets before us two choices for eternity; namely life or death. If we choose to continue in sin, death for eternity will be our choice, if we choose to be redeemed through grace, life for eternity is our choice. You cannot have life eternally without acknowledgment of sin followed by repentance followed by obedience. If our heart’s are not totally surrendered, we will only put forth a nominal offering.
“ I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service “. Romans 12:1
Devotion, Doctrine, Duty, and Dogma supplied through the revelation of scripture. It is God breathed and is profitable for growth. A branch that dies to itself will live through the sap ( Spirit ) of the true vine.
CHRISTIAN CONSECRATION IS OR SHOULD BE:
Deliberate
Eternal
Without Reservation
Divinely Powered
Let us now zero in on verse 18 of Isaiah chapter 1 and how it is foundational to our salvation through the sacrifice of Christ.
“ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Scarlet: the color of Jesus Christ’s robe when bearing our “sins”. it’s recorded that some Rabbis say, when a scarlet cloth or band was bound on the scapegoat’s head, the high priest ceremonially confessed his and the people’s sins over it, then the cloth became white. These same Rabbis said this miracle ceased, forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, that’s about the time when Jesus Christ was crucified. This is a remarkable admission coming from the Lord’s adversaries. Jesus was the prophesied sacrifice by the High Priest before his passion, he was clothed in a scarlet robe, signifying the deeply staining dye of our sins, as our scapegoat, and who also was one without spot or blemish which he himself possessed. A sacrificial lamb had to be flawless in its physical build and healthy without any disease. Jesus fulfilled both types, the scapegoat as well as the sacrificial lamb. Let examine the scarlet more intensely.
The Hebrew word for “scarlet” with a radical annotation means double-dyed; it’s an illustration of the deeply fixed permanency of sin in the heart, which no mere tears can wash away. The word scarlet is derived from the use of a certain worm called the crimson worm.
The Crimson worm [coccus ilicis] is a very special worm that looks more like a grub than a worm. When it is time for the female or mother Crimson worm to have babies (which she does only one time in her life), she finds the trunk of a tree, or a stick. She then attaches her body to that wood to make a hard crimson shell. She is so strongly and permanently stuck to the wood that the shell can never be removed without tearing her body completely apart and killing her. After three days, the dead mother Crimson worm’s body loses its crimson color and turns into a white wax which falls to the ground like snow. Jesus bore our crimson sins and three days later rose from the dead.
The crimson worm is common to the region of old Israel, in ancient days the dead bodies of the females were scraped from trees, dried, then ground to power and used to make dye for cloth and garments, the color was scarlet (purple) or crimson ( dark red ). They were ground up to also use for the medicinal purpose of helping the heart beat smoothly. The white wax body was also grounded and used in making shellac to preserve wood.
Repentance must be prerequisite before sins can be white as snow or as white as un-dyed wool. Grace is available through the blood of Jesus, not the blood of the sacrificial lambs or scapegoats, which are only a witness of the ultimate Sacrificial Son. Let me close with this passage:
(20) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
(21) But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
(22) Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
(23) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
(24) Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
(25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
(26) To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3:20-26 KJV
Brethren let us keep the faith by being grounded in the whole counsel of God’s word. One can develop a greater understanding of the New Covenant by studying the Old Covenant, Prophets, and Psalms. God is Supernatural, but he gave us the faculties of reason. Selah!
Shalom, Agape, & Amen!
Apostle Ritchie
Our God is a just and righteous God, perfect in all his ways. His eyes beholding the good and the evil of this present age. Today we are beholding the rampant degradation of our present age and a need for revival in the land. Let us remember the Old Covenant is the School Master for the New Covenant, the types, figures, and shadows of things to come, and a good case study of the nature of God. God says of himself “I am the Lord your God and I never change”. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever! The passage below concerns a reformation of character and conduct concerning the nation of Israel. We can use this as a model for today.
(16) Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
(17) Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
(18) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
(19) If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
(20) But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
(21) How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isaiah 1:16-21 KJV
Can you see the similarity between the days of Isaiah and the present and Israel and the church? God had set up a sacrificial system to forgive repentance. God is holy, Jesus declared, then gave an imperative “ be ye holy also”. Moral elevation has always been an objective which repentance demands. However, man has no intrinsic power eradicate the nature of sin. Today there are those whom harbor a belief in the power of positive thinking and positive confession a heresy spearheaded by an apostate preacher/psychiatrist. The answer to man’s fallen state is a power from outside of himself, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. God works his renewal, reviving, reformation, and refines us the several steps of grace.
Challenges us through confrontation with the truth of our condition.
Commands us to repent from the transgressions of our condition.
Conditions us through appealing to our sense of reason.
Consoles us in the knowledge of his forgiveness.
Confirms us through the renewal of our commitment.
The gospel clearly sets before us two choices for eternity; namely life or death. If we choose to continue in sin, death for eternity will be our choice, if we choose to be redeemed through grace, life for eternity is our choice. You cannot have life eternally without acknowledgment of sin followed by repentance followed by obedience. If our heart’s are not totally surrendered, we will only put forth a nominal offering.
“ I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service “. Romans 12:1
Devotion, Doctrine, Duty, and Dogma supplied through the revelation of scripture. It is God breathed and is profitable for growth. A branch that dies to itself will live through the sap ( Spirit ) of the true vine.
CHRISTIAN CONSECRATION IS OR SHOULD BE:
Deliberate
Eternal
Without Reservation
Divinely Powered
Let us now zero in on verse 18 of Isaiah chapter 1 and how it is foundational to our salvation through the sacrifice of Christ.
“ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Scarlet: the color of Jesus Christ’s robe when bearing our “sins”. it’s recorded that some Rabbis say, when a scarlet cloth or band was bound on the scapegoat’s head, the high priest ceremonially confessed his and the people’s sins over it, then the cloth became white. These same Rabbis said this miracle ceased, forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, that’s about the time when Jesus Christ was crucified. This is a remarkable admission coming from the Lord’s adversaries. Jesus was the prophesied sacrifice by the High Priest before his passion, he was clothed in a scarlet robe, signifying the deeply staining dye of our sins, as our scapegoat, and who also was one without spot or blemish which he himself possessed. A sacrificial lamb had to be flawless in its physical build and healthy without any disease. Jesus fulfilled both types, the scapegoat as well as the sacrificial lamb. Let examine the scarlet more intensely.
The Hebrew word for “scarlet” with a radical annotation means double-dyed; it’s an illustration of the deeply fixed permanency of sin in the heart, which no mere tears can wash away. The word scarlet is derived from the use of a certain worm called the crimson worm.
The Crimson worm [coccus ilicis] is a very special worm that looks more like a grub than a worm. When it is time for the female or mother Crimson worm to have babies (which she does only one time in her life), she finds the trunk of a tree, or a stick. She then attaches her body to that wood to make a hard crimson shell. She is so strongly and permanently stuck to the wood that the shell can never be removed without tearing her body completely apart and killing her. After three days, the dead mother Crimson worm’s body loses its crimson color and turns into a white wax which falls to the ground like snow. Jesus bore our crimson sins and three days later rose from the dead.
The crimson worm is common to the region of old Israel, in ancient days the dead bodies of the females were scraped from trees, dried, then ground to power and used to make dye for cloth and garments, the color was scarlet (purple) or crimson ( dark red ). They were ground up to also use for the medicinal purpose of helping the heart beat smoothly. The white wax body was also grounded and used in making shellac to preserve wood.
Repentance must be prerequisite before sins can be white as snow or as white as un-dyed wool. Grace is available through the blood of Jesus, not the blood of the sacrificial lambs or scapegoats, which are only a witness of the ultimate Sacrificial Son. Let me close with this passage:
(20) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
(21) But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
(22) Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
(23) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
(24) Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
(25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
(26) To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3:20-26 KJV
Brethren let us keep the faith by being grounded in the whole counsel of God’s word. One can develop a greater understanding of the New Covenant by studying the Old Covenant, Prophets, and Psalms. God is Supernatural, but he gave us the faculties of reason. Selah!
Shalom, Agape, & Amen!
Apostle Ritchie
