One Year Bible - October 6, 2010

JEREMIAH 6:15 - 8:7                                                                                                       
"THE OLD PATHS": (6:16) "There you will find rest for your souls".  Return to the Cross of Jesus - start over.  But no one would listen!  Threats did no good.   They tried to manipulate God with outward rituals of worship (their hearts weren't in it).  God wants our hearts, not our stuff.

"THE FRUIT OF THEIR THOUGHTS": (6:18) (the results of all their scheming).  They thought they could be better, stronger, richer, prettier, more famous, more loved, more popular, - by their alliances with earthly things.   Now those earthly alliances will be what destroyed them. The strumblingblocks didn't cause them to fall into sin - they had already purposefully stepped into it. Now they would FALL into trouble.  No matter what they do, they won't be able to avoid it. They won't be able to look for help from each other, because they will all go down.   The enemy is cruel and has no mercy - you'd better be watching over your shoulder.   He's already on his way and will pounce without warning.  Like King Saul of old, they have been rejected.

WATCHMEN:  YOU be a "tower and a fortress".  Be someone that truly repentant people can come to for help.   Unfortunately, nearly everyone is "grievous revolters" and will fly at you in their hardness of heart.

ON MY WAY TO CHURCH:  There stood Jeremiah in the gateway to the churchyard, calling us: "if you change your ways and return to God, you will be allowed to escape judgment."  First they were deceived by their leaders, then they became self-deceived.  After all, they were on their way to church.   But they had exchanged the God of goodness and greatness, for gods who did nothing for them.   Then, they came and stood before Jehovah God pretending to be sorry and claiming to be delivered so they wouldn't feel guilty.  They thought they could hide behind their church-attendance.  But God said, "I have seen it."

TAKE A LOOK AT SHILOH:   Shiloh was the old-days worship center, where the Ark was kept and the people worshipped.   When the people acted like Jerusalem is now, God forsook Shiloh (wrote "Ichobad" over it - "the glory has departed") and the Ark went into captivity.  The land was laid waste.   Being a church-goer won't save you!  "Do not pray for them...because I won't hear you."  That is a scary thought!  (prayer delays judgment) Their doom is sealed.   All your sacrifices won't save you either when you persist in disobedience.  They had set up their own will in competition with God's and they actually went backwards! They are worse off than their fathers.

"TRUTH HAS PERISHED":  (7:28)  Everyone is deceived - they have surrendered Truth.  They have lost their bottom line!   They live disoriented to Reality.  God has "rejected and forsaken" them.

VALLEY OF HINNOM: An OT type of HELL.  The NT word is "Gehenna" and designates the place of eternal punishment of the wicked.   Judas is buried there.   It was where Molech worship took place and children were sacrificed and burned at the altars.   Rubbish fires burned continually out there for convenience in dumping offal and garbage.   Because the people are polluted and have polluted all God gave them, and have actually participated in worship by sacrificing their babies, the valley will be filled with their dead bodies.  There will be nothing to rejoice in any more.  Even after you are dead, you won't rest.  Your graves will be dug up and robbed of anything valuable.

WHY DO PEOPLE PERSIST IN CLINGING TO THEIR DECEIT?   Why do some persistently backslide?  No matter how many times they come to the altars, they walk away unchanged. What's up?  Even animal and birds are smarter than that!  These people don't appear to be embarrassed by their behavior either.  They reject the Word and prefer their own reasonings and opinions.   They seem to believe that God's grace and mercy will extend to them forever, and they can "change" when they want to!   They talk about how good God is, and how wonderful He is to them, when God is actually taking everything away from them!  They flatter each other with how wonderful they are and what good things they are doing.  They think they can justify everything and laugh at their accusers.   They ruin themselves thru deceit and go into slavery (bondage).

RESPONSE: People that I love and care about act just like this!  They prefer their sin to the Presence of God!  They seem to think they are free from all the rules that bind me!  The truth is that I don't WANT to do what they are doing!  It is self-destructive and grieves the Holy Spirit, Whom I love and to Whom I owe everything.  Nothing feels as good as pleasing God feels. Nothing feels as good as a clean conscience either!  Yes, it is work to come clean.  But it is fueled by joy!  It is pure misery to be governed by THUGS, who have no bottom line!

COLOSSIANS 2:8-23                                                                                                            
THE ANSWER TO PHILOSOPHY AND VAIN DECEIT:  We all know what "philosophy" is - "the love of knowledge" - but actually today it has come to be used to describe our foundations for how we live.  So we have a "philosophy about God", a "philosophy about marriage", etc.  Here, it says ”philosophy...that is according to the elements of the world, and NOT after Christ." Gal 4:3, 9 call it "beggarly elements of the world".  They are deceptive and are an empty sham, with no substance. They are according to something that the Bible says is already in the process of "passing away" (Luke 21:33; 2 Peter 3:10). Heretical philosophies are a danger because they form a barricade against Trust and are misleading and seductive.

What is "True philosophy". . . which is "according to Christ"?
(1) All the fullness of deity lives in Christ Jesus (2:9).  The word "fullness" strongly affirms His deity. Because He possesses "full deity", Jesus is completely equal with the Father and the Spirit  . And it lives there "bodily" - Jesus was fully human while He was fully God the Divine without diminishing either part of Him. This means He was fully qualified to make atonement for us.  He is our exclusive Head.  There is no other.

(2) Believer are complete in Christ Jesus (2:10-14). Jesus possesses "fullness of deity", and Christians have fulness of Life from Him.   We are identified with Him "who is head over all rule and authority".  Jesus is fully sufficient, and we need no other.  "Complete" means "fulness."  How close is our identity with His? (v.11-12)   Water baptism is NT circumcision. It is the SIGN of covenant (marriage).  It is a virgin man coming into a virgin woman, thereby consummating the marriage covenant.  When we are water baptized, we consummate our relationship with Jesus.  It alters our spiritual makeup.   We are no longer plain, natural humans.  Additionally, when we entered the baptismal waters, as we went under the water, it was like burying the old man (stripping him off).  When we rise up out of the water, it is a resurrection to "newness of life" (Rom 6:4).  We ALREADY participated in Jesus' death and resurrection.  No further charge can be brought against us.

(3) Redemption is complete because Christ has all Authority.  (2:13-15) Christ's death on the cross "cancelled the written bond...."  That is, the legal demands of the Law, which exposed sin and demanded satisfaction.   It was like picking up all our IOU's and paying them.  Our forgiveness is finall. "Thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities." have been stripped of their authority, disarmed, and left naked and defeated by Jesus.  They have been "made a show of "- paraded through the streets of heaven, naked and in chains.  Nowhere in the NT is Satan seen in heaven, following the ascension of Jesus.   This is a reality settled in heaven and Satan can no longer accuse us to God.

LOGICAL OUTCOMES: (2:16-23)  Regarding man-centered philosophies - rules and regulations puff up the flesh, producing self-righteousness and arrogance. People may "browbeat" us into feeling obligated to participate in these rites - but all those rituals and ceremonies and special days, in reality, point to Jesus Christ, by whom we are already "filled" - "complete".

RESPONSE:  Any connection between sin and a believer is an unnatural one.  We only sin because we WANT to.  And as we grow closer to the Lord, we really don't even WANT to!  We become "dead" to sin.  It loses its appeal.  Darkness has no claim on me.  I owe it no obligation, because I have been bought back from the darkness. 

PSALM 78:1-31                                                                                                                    
"DARK SAYINGS": (V.2) These are difficult parables, that demand the fear of God.  These "dark sayings" ask two questions: (1) How could anyone have been so stubborn and rebellious again and again?  (2) Why is God so amazingly patient and merciful to such a miserable bunch of people?  The purpose of these "dark sayings" is to WARN against unfaithfulness.

To avoid apostasy or falling away of our children and grandchildren, we must teach them the goodness, greatness and glory of God, and to OBEY Him.   NEVER PANIC (like Ephraim).  And NEVER SETTLE for what we already have of God.  The next generation will be either better or worse than this one.

PROVERBS 24:26                                                                                                          
The truth is as good as a kiss on the lips!  Especially coming from a guilty 6-year-old!

RESPONSE: Jeremiah accused the people of Judah of being "worse than their fathers", because they had "built" on the evil their fathers had already done.  I have many regrets for the way I lived as an immature, inexperienced Christian in front of my children.   It really hurts when I see my children doing or saying things I used to.  I am grateful for good Churches and good friends who act as a rear guard when we "mess things up".