Fresh Speaking
(Nancy's notes from Lord's Day, August 1, 2010)
What is life all about? Getting a degree? Raising a family? That is your purpose in life. That is not the purpose God has. That is too low. God has a much higher purpose in store for you.
We are in a realm of eternity. Many believe in the big bang theory. Something happened - BANG. Even if you believe this, why did that happen? Because there is a God with a purpose. He caused whatever happened to happen. If there is a God with eternity in view, He does not do things frivolously with no purpose. God has something specific in view for you and for all mankind.
Time is for what God wants to accomplish. It takes time to accomplish anything. Something, according to God's heart, is meant to happen. His plan is to accomplish something with man.
The Old Testament is the history of God's people; a picture of what God desires to accomplish.
Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
This verse is very familiar to many of us. This is the culmination of creation. Man was made in God's image and according to God's likeness. I am created inwardly as God's image. God must think, see, feel, love, hate, etc. Why were we put on the earth? To go on a cruise? To party and have a good time? God says "I am your good time! Take a cruise in Me!"
United States used to think they had dominion. Now, other countries have advanced. But eventually dominion will be with God's people! God is after another kind of dominion. He wants a man after His own heart. Out of Abraham was Issac, Jacob and all the children of Israel. The Israelites were a peculiar people. In captivity and out of captivity. Israel is very significant to God. The land has no oil, no gold, no natural resources, yet this land is crucial, not in any outward way, but crucial in God's plan.
Deut. 12:4-5 "You shall not do so to Jehovah your God. But to the place which Jehovah your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name, to His habitation, shall you seek, and there shall you go."
You shall not have high places - mentioned in previous verses. But to the place Jehovah your God will choose to put His name. His name means His person. You want to know who someone is? Go to the place they put their name; their home, their habitation. God, as a man, has a place where He chose to put His name.
Eventually a king was raised up - David. He had a heart to build a place for God to dwell. A prophet spoke to David and told him he would not be the one to build God's house, but I will build within you! The one after God's heart - God wants to do something within him! David told Solomon his desire for God to have a house.
I Kings 5:17-18 "And the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, in order to lay the foundation of the house with hewn stone. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites fashioned the stone and prepared the timber and the stones in order to build the house."
Now you see David's offspring. A king full of wisdom, known throughout the land. He brought stone to lay the foundation. The place was so crucial. The place where God would choose to put His name there.
I Kings 6:12 "As for this house that you are building, if you walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will establish My word with you, which I spoke to David your father;"
The word here that was spoken to David was that there would be a continuation of his seed, and that his seed would build the Temple, the house. Eventually, the God of the universe came and His glory filled the house! God - in time - desires to build His dwelling place in man. Look at all the skyscrapers and buildings man has built. This is for glory to man. God's building is so much higher!
I Kings 8:10-11,27 "And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of Jehovah; and the priests were not able to stand and minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah. ... But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain You, how much less this house which I have built."
Solomon said this - yet God's glory came and filled the Temple. Nothing else on earth mattered at that time. God's glory filled the house!
You graduated first in your class, your making lots of money. Your raised a beautiful family. You've lived a long life. SO WHAT! What is the value? If you knew God and especially if you believed in Jesus, then there is an eternal value.
Solomon's building the temple is a picture. The temple will be rebuilt. God will have a remnant in Israel. God was surrounded with people in the temple. Eventually, they fell away into disobedience. They stumbled. The temple was destroyed. It's easy to be drawn off, to stumble. Eventually, a remnant was called back to rebuild the house. We have "Sela's" in our lives. He always draws us back. They came back after 70 years in Babylon.
Ezra 3:11-13 "And they sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to Jehovah, saying, For He is good, for His lovingkindness is forever upon Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, the old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes; and many shouted aloud for joy, So that the people could not discern the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away."
All this shouting was because the foundation was laid. The place is so crucial. Why couldn't they have built in Babylon? NO! God chose the place. God has not deterred from His eternal plan. In our Christian life there are setbacks. What God wants is holy. If your life is for something else, the eternal value is very limited. Our whole life is a walk according to God's view. All the physical picture is just a type, a picture. What God is after is a habitation in Spirit, where He can dwell and have dominion over the earth. He wants a dwelling place.
Jesus was born. He ministered for 3 1/2 years. He said "in three days I will rebuild." (Gospel of John) The Jews got hung up on this. God does not dwell in stones. He said as many as receive Him. Jesus died; blood and water flowed! We were begotten to become His house, His habitation! On the cross He made the way for this building to be among all men - both Jews and Gentiles.
Eph. 1:9-11,2:19-20,3:10-11
"Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him; In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the counsel of His will, ... So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone; ... In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, According to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord,"
You are all very clear in reading these verses, right? NO! What God is doing among us is mysterious. These verses talk about God's eternal plan - the good pleasure of His will. We are no longer strangers. Being built upon the foundation. What is your Christian life for? To be built upon the foundation. Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone! Exciting! This is a Spiritual mystery! This is not something visible. This is something eternal. We are here to see God's eternal purpose for us - on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Who was Paul? Someone the revelation was made clear to! You can read Ephesians many times and not see or realize God's will. You having eternal value is based on what God reveals to you. Be clear as a believer; your eternal value is according to God's plan. To be according to the revelation the apostles and prophets have revealed to us is so crucial. The value of your life is to be according to God's eternal purpose.