“His name is holy and fearsome – the first and foremost point of wisdom is the fear of Adonai; all those living by it gain good common sense. His praise stands forever!”  Psalm 111:9b-10 (CJB) 

Over the years God has been making something increasingly clear to me, and this teaching is what He has been showing me. 

Most of Christendom doesn’t revere God for who He is. Once again inappropriate teachings regarding the Grace gift, and the “freedom” we obtain in Jesus have brought God down to man’s level! Let me explain. We live in a day of pitifully shallow concepts of God. Most individuals are NOT the least bit interested in God – PERIOD! 

Some of today’s contemporary Christian music leaves the impression that God is our buddy - a great pal to have in a - pinch. A film star once said of God, “He’s the great Big Daddy upstairs.” One pop song asks, “What if God were a slob like us?”  That is not the biblical view of God. That is man’s feeble attempt to make God- relevant. 

Do you hear the cheapness of such a concept of God? These small ideas of God diminish the beauty of His Holiness. Although their desire may be to make God relevant, all such efforts cheapen and degrade the - Holiness of God. 

In Exodus 19:12-22, you find God insistently maintaining an elevated, an exalted position. God has boundaries! And in Exodus 19 He clearly marks off His boundaries, warning His own people, “Do not cross that line.”  In other words, do not become glib with Me and do not become frivolous in My presence! 

We human beings are so quick to get offended if someone treats us with less than respect! If someone calls us by a name, we don’t like we get offended and we often correct them. Why? Quite often the name carries a connotation that is offensive to us. 

Most women get upset if a man hollers, “Hey babe”, “Hey mama”, or even “Hey sweet thing”. Some women get upset when someone refers to a group of men and women as, “Hey guys.” 

Do you understand what I mean? We are quick to pick up on these types of things where we are involved. But! We hardly ever think of how God feels about the way we address Him! I’m not talking about just the way we address Him. I’m talking also about the way we feel about Him and our perspectives of Him. In short, our concept of God determines how we address Him, and how we relate to Him, and how we perceive Him. 

Back in the early stages of the formation of this country, the Puritans had a solid concept of God. Do you know why it is so crucial for us to recover such a respectful understanding of God? 

A shallow view of God leads to a shallow life! Treat God superficially, and you become superficial. But hold God in profound respect, and it is remarkable how deep the root of your spiritual life grows!  

Spiritual depth is rare these days! It is VERY rare! Our time with God might well depend on a flip of the coin - heads I do, tails I don’t. If I feel like it, great. If I don’t, well, God understands! That is - NOT TRUE! God is holy and exalted! He is the only wise God! He is the Sovereign Lord. He is the Master! He tells me what to do:

I HAVE - NO SAFE OPTION – NOT TO DO IT!

THERE IS - NO ALTERNATIVE, AND NO MULTIPLE CHOICE!

WE HAVE - ONE DIRECTIVE – DO GOD’S WILL!

Example: The Commission of Isaiah: 

“In the year that Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:  

“Holy, holy’ holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.” (NIV) Isaiah 6:1-4

Example: When Joshua came upon Him at Jericho, he immediately fell before His feet.

“Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” the commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.”  (NIV) Joshua 5:13-15

Example: When Ezekiel saw Him, he found no words to describe Him, groping within the limits of language to depict Him in the clouds among shining wheels that spun in the glories of heaven.

“On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, as I was sitting in my house and the leaders of Y’hudah were sitting there with me, the hand of Adonai Elohim fell on me. I looked and saw what seemed like a man made of fire. From what appeared to be his waist downward was fire, and from his waist upward was what appeared to be a gleaming amber-colored brilliance.  The form of a hand was put out, which took me by a lock of my hair; and a spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me, in these visions from God, to Yerushalayim, to the entrance of the inner (courtyard) gate that faces north.  There stood the idol that (arouses God’s) jealousy and provokes (his) zealous indignation. There before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the valley.”

“Then he said to me, “Human being, raise your eyes toward the north.”  I raised my eyes toward the north and saw, north of the Altar Gate, this image that (arouses God’s) jealousy in the entryway. He asked me, “Human being, do you see what they are doing, the horribly disgusting practices that the house of Israel is committing here, so that I must distance myself from my own sanctuary? But you will see even worse abominations.”  (CJB) Ezekiel 8:1-6

“Then I looked, and suddenly, on the dome over the heads of the k’ruvin (cherubim), there appeared above them something like sapphire that seemed to take the form of a throne. He spoke to the man clothed in linen; he said, “go in between the throne. He spoke to the man clothed in lined; he said. “Go in between the wheels under the k’ruvim, fill both your hands with fiery coals from between the k’ruvim, and throw them on the city.”  As I watched, he went. Now the k’ruvim, were standing to the right of the house when the man entered, and the cloud filled the inner courtyard. The glory of Adonai rose from above the keruv to the threshold of the house, leaving the house filled with the cloud and the courtyard full of the brilliance of Adonai’s glory. The sound of the wings of the k’ruvim could be heard even in the outer courtyard sounding like the voice of God, Shaddai, when he speaks.”  (CJB) Ezekiel 10:1-5

Example: When Saul (Paul) came upon the Savior he was struck down and struck blind!

“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, why do you persecute me?”  Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. ‘I AM Jesus whom you are persecuting.”  He replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”  (NIV) Acts 9:3-6

Example: When John the Apostle saw Jesus, he fell at His feet.

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double – edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said:  Do not be afraid. I am the first and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”  (NIV) Revelation 1:12-18

Christendom in many ways has forgotten who God is! They have lessened His position. He has become people’s pal, their understanding buddy, and their available bell-boy! He is not! He is the Lord God! He does not bow to our hurried pace. He does not bow to our demands! And once we get over ourselves enough to come after Him, He is ready to meet with us and begin to cleanse our lives and become who He wants to be in our lives. 

One man expressed his reverence like this: “The heaviest obligation upon the Christian church is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him. In all her prayers and labors this should have first place. We do the greatest service to the next generation of Christians by passing on to them undimmed and undiminished the noble concept of God which we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past."

A healthy fear of God will do much to deter us from sin. When we have a proper fear of the living Lord, we don’t want to sin. Any person who sins willfully has blocked out his fear of God. That can be done! When we actively engage in sin, we consciously put aside what we know to be the truth about God. We suppress the knowledge of Him in our hearts and minds. We lie to ourselves by saying, “We’ll get by. God won’t mind so much.”

At the risk of sounding as if I’m grinding an ax, I must say that a fear of the Almighty has turned up missing in our era. And when it is absent, we think we may do as we please. You can live as you please if you know you’re not being seen, and you won’t get caught. But if, down deep inside, you know there is a loving and Holy God who will not let you get away with sin, you will avoid sin at all costs. That is exactly what the Lord wanted to establish first with the people of Israel - a holy, righteous, pure, and respectful concept of His presence.

When you come to that understanding, and when you really realize who God is, you learn to thoroughly hate and dread those actions that will plunge you again into darkness. King David expressed it this way,

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”  (NIV) Psalm 119:103-105

From Strong’s: The word, words are Strong’s # 565 meaning: commandment, speech, word. Taken from #561 meaning, utter, speak. From the root word #559 meaning: to utter, to say. Clearly this is the spoken Word, not the written Word!

The We Are Set Free Concept! “Many people who heard him say these things trusted in him. So, Yeshua said to the Judeans who had trusted him, “If you obey what I say, then you are really my talmidim, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  They answered, “We are the seed of Avraham and have never been slaves to anyone; so what do you mean by saying, ‘You will be set free’?  Yeshua answered them, “Yes, indeed! I tell you that everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin. Now a slave does not remain with a family forever, but a son does remain with it forever. So, if the Son frees you, you will be really free!”  (CJB) John 8:30-36

“There is a kind of trust which falls short of making one really a talmid (see 2:23-25, Mt 5:1N) of Yeshua.  Real talmidim obey Yeshua, which is more than mentally acknowledging who he is.  The popular quotation, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” is conditioned on obeying what Yeshua says.”  (JNTC, pg. 182)

Hebrews 10:19-30“So, brothers, we have confidence to use the way into the Holiest Place way through the parokhet, by means of his flesh. We also have a great cohen over God’s household. 

“Therefore, let us approach the Holiest place with a sincere heart, in the full assurance that comes from trusting – with our hearts sprinkled clean from a bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us continue holding fast to the hope we acknowledge, without wavering; for the One who made the promise is trustworthy.  And let us keep paying attention to one another, in order to spur each other on to love and good deeds, not neglecting our own congregational meetings, as some have made a practice of doing, but, rather, encouraging each other.  And let us do this all the more as you see the Day approaching.  For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but only the terrifying prospect of Judgement, of raging fire that will consume the enemies.

Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common the blood of the covenant which made him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, giver of God’s grace!

 

For the One we know is the one who said, “Vengeance is my responsibility; I will repay,”

and then said,“Adonai will judge his people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”  (CJB) Hebrews 10:19-30

“These verses recapitulate, in even stronger language, the exhortation of 6:4-8, with emphasis on fearing God. The modern tendency is to bowdlerize (remove, purge, make obscene) into “reverence for God” or minimize it by exalting love of God as a higher motivation for right behavior than fear of him. But doing so blunts the impact which the prospect of judgement ought to make (vv. 27, 30-31). There is a right reason for fearing God; there is such a thing as “holy fear” (11:7). “The fear of Adonai is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

Those who deliberately continue to sin (v. 26) are doing what the Torah calls sinning “with a high hand,” and for such sins the Levitical system of sacrifices prescribed in the Torah does not atone (see Ya 2:10-11&N). Think how much worse it will be for those who highhandedly ignore Yeshua’s atoning sacrificial death (v.29)! This is the point of this passage.”  (JNTC, pg. 707)

Cheap Grace!

In conjunction with Christendom’s concept of a shallow God, they have cheapened the precious Grace gift! At this point in this Teaching, we need to look at the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from his book, The Cost Of Discipleship (1959). 

“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjack’s’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap? 

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth; the love of God taught as the Christian “conception” of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient, to secure remission of sins. The church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, a part in that grace. In such a church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. “All for sin could not atone.”  The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners “Even in the best life” as Luther said. 

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance…communion without confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Cheap grace says, “of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven so you can stay as you are…!”

Christendom has cheapened God, His grace and everything about Him! Grace as we have discussed before, must be thought of as “costly”. Why? Because even through it is a gift, there is a requirement which goes with it. For it to be working in our life in the manner God ordained it to be, we must understand as Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it: “Costly grace demands of us to take the call to discipleship more seriously than ever before! It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace. Costly grace, has to cost you your life, and must continue to cost you the same price every day by day.”

Martin Luther said, ‘Grace cost Him his own life, the life which was now for the first time subjected to the absolute obedience of Christ.”  What did he mean by that?  He said, “My followers took up my doctrine and repeated it word for word.  But they left out…the obligation of discipleship.”  Thus meaning: Jesus paid such a high cost for grace, shouldn’t absolute obedience on our part be a natural consequence or effect, or result for this precious gift He gave us?”  

♥Pearl

“The only man or women who has the right to say that he or she is justified by grace is the man or women who has - left all to follow Christ!” 

Such a man or women knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of Grace, and the call to obedience is inseparable from the grace! But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ in obedience to God are simply deceiving themselves! 

Grace = Following Jesus = Obedience to God!

The church pours forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way is hardly ever heard. Men and women are deceived and weak, they are taught they are strong, because of grace, but they are miserable. Why? Because they are NOT taught to “follow” Jesus! John 14:15

“If you love me, you will keep my commands; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever.  The world cannot receive him, because he is staying with you and will be united with you.  I will not leave you orphans – I am coming to you.  In just a little while, the world will no longer see me; but you will see me. Because I live, you too will live.  When that day comes, you will know that I am united with my Father, and you with me, and I with you.  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”  (CJB) John 14:15-21

“If you love me, you will keep my commands, my mitzvot. It is wrong to think of Messianic Judaism or Christianity as “easy” requiring only pleasant feelings of love but no actions to prove it.  Dake’s Annotated reference Bible lists 1,050 New Testament commands which according to this verse, are to be obeyed by those who love Yeshua. The distinction drawn between Old Testament Judaism as a religion of law and New Testament faith as a religion of love is unfounded. In both the Tanakh and the B’rit Chadashah biblical religion is based on both love and law, both mercy and justice; it has always been so and always will be.”  (JNTC, pg. 200)

Adonai, who can rest in your tent?

Who can live on your holy mountain?

Whose who live a blameless life,

Who behave uprightly,

Who speak truth from their hearts

And keep their tongues from slander;

Who never do harm to others

Or seek to discredit neighbors;

But honor those who fear Adonai;

Who hold to an oath, no mater the cost;

Who refuse usury when they lend money

And refuse a bribe to damage the innocent.

Those who do these things 

Never will be removed.

Psalm 15 (CJB)

 

(sw-h)

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