11-21-2020         True Forgiveness

 

Watched ‘Touched by an Angel’ episode 6 of the eighth season titled “Famous Lasts Words”.  The story of a man on death row for killing his step-father.  He discovers the truth about the relationship with his mother and his abusive step-father.  He finds forgiveness for himself, gives forgiveness to his mother and then asks forgiveness from his step-father’s mother. 

When we truly repent, God can truly forgive all things we may have done wrong, especially those which we are confessing.  Now remember, this is a TV show so all the words may not be said exactly to our liking, but the Spirit is evident.

I thought about Father’s true forgiveness for a while, then I thought about my own experience (TY HG).

My wife to be and I were counselling for marriage in the pastor’s office.  Now the pastor had some funny ideas about marriage – he felt that if Jesus wasn’t there, the marriage would be most difficult at best.  So, of course, he challenged both my wife and I.  My wife said yes and I said that I had grown up in this church (though under a previous pastor).  I said that I also attended an occasional Sunday evening and the Wednesday night youth study.  The pastor looked at me and said “That’s not what I asked you.  I asked you if you have ever received Jesus into your heart.”  I looked back at the pastor thinking that he was a little crazy.  I thought that what I said was sufficient to secure my spot in eternity.  As I was looking at him, the Holy Ghost jumped into my heart and convicted me that my honest answer was ’no’.  So, being a good Southern Baptist preacher, he asked me if I wanted to make sure.  I said yes and prayed to let Jesus in.  Now, the pastor told me afterwards that had I refused we would have to find someone else to perform the ceremony.  He would not perform the ceremony knowing that Christ was not present.  My wife gave her life to Jesus about three years later. 

I was baptized in water a couple of months later with others who had given their life to Jesus and I want to say this:  when I was baptized in water, all I got was wet.  Hold on.  Hold on!  Let me finish.  The afternoon I let Jesus into my heart (in the pastor’s office) is when I felt something.  After I had prayed, asking forgiveness and avowing Jesus as Lord, I could feel like a huge weight being lifted up off of my body.  Literally, I felt a ton lighter – instantaneously!  I could actually feel the weight of my sin lifting off of my body!   

John (the Baptist) told the people he baptized them with water of repentance for the remission of sin but one was coming after him who would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire (Matt. 3:11, Mark 1:4, Acts 2:1-4).

While we are here, let’s take a look at four words: water, baptize, fire remission.  Matthew uses the word ‘baptize’ in conjunction with both water (of repentance) and fire with the end result as remission of sin.

Baptize              (907)  baptizo  baptize, make fully wet or wash.  From bapto (911) to cover wholly with a fluid, moisten or stain part of a person’s body, dip

Being raised Southern Baptist, I was taught that being baptized meant being fully immersed in water as example of burying the old self and rising up out of the water a new creature in Jesus Christ.  Understanding that it represents the cleansing of my spirit, I have always preferred this way, but note, that the Greek definition also includes (maybe) only a portion of one’s body might get wet.  I used to always ask myself if a man were laying on the battlefield and lay near death and he receives Jesus, how would one get him to a pond to dunk him?  Most GIs carry a canteen with them (or they used to).  I’m not suggesting to dump the whole canteen on the man, but perhaps some of the water on – say the forehead – would seem to suffice.(?)  It wouldn’t be ‘total’ immersion, but it would be getting a part of the body totally wet.

I also note that John says that water baptism represents our repentance, which, of course, leads to our salvation.  We have to repent in order to be saved!  What does Peter tell us in the book of Acts?  “Repent and everyone be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38).  Now, I’m not going to discuss the difference between “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost” and “In Jesus’ name” (Matt. 28:19).  You have the references here, check it out for yourself.  However, repentance is required for salvation.

Yet, our water baptism is an outward expression of our inner repentance of our sins.  In short, our water baptism is saying “I’m serious about what I have expressed with my lips.  I’ve received Jesus into my heart and I’m not embarrassed to let the world know it.

( https://www.openbible.info/topics/water_baptism  various scriptures = why water baptism)

Water (5204) hudor or hudatos (5202, 5205).  The base is 5205 (huetos) which is rain, like in a shower.  Note also 4095 (pino) which is water –hudor/hudatos is water.

Water has a cleansing or refreshing aspect but the same word designates something to drink.  Nonetheless, it is wet.

Fire                  (4442) pur fiery, fire     Our word pure associates the Latin word purus which means unmixed with anything else.  Note the similarity for pur, purus and pure.  Ergo fire purifies us - by burning off the chaffe.

In Matthew chapter three, John says the one coming after him will baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.  In Acts chapter two we see the Holy Ghost descending upon the disciples in the upper room as tongues of fire.  An angel touched Isaiah’s lips with a live coal from the altar purging his iniquity and sin (isa. 6:6-7).  So fire is indicative of our cleansing or, if you will, purification. 

A test of one's abilities to perform well under pressure, as in Finishing a huge list of chores in time for the wedding is really a trial by fire. The twelve labors of Hercules are brought to mind which were used to purify him for killing his wife and children.  This expression also alludes to the medieval practice of determining a person's guilt or innocence by having them undergo an ordeal, such as walking barefoot through a fire (dictionary.com).  As I said, fire is symbolic of our purification.

Remission       (359)  analusis means departure.  It is derived from analuo (360) & luo (3089) which is break up, put off, dissolve.

So remission of our sins basically means a departure of our sins.  They are broken up, dissolved, cast away.  Isaiah tells us that God delivered his soul from hell and put is sins behind His back (Isa. 38:17).  We should do as Father when we truly confess our sins, that is, put them behind our back.  Forget them.  Should the enemy try bring them back up declare that we’ve confessed and repented them thereby receiving God’s forgiveness.  So remission means they’re gone.  Father won’t bring them back up and neither should we.  And when the devil tries to bring them back up, we need to stand our ground telling Satan to get behind us (Matt. 16:23).  Satan is a liar and is the father of lies and deception (Rev. 12:9, John 8:44).  If he can keep us in guilt, thereby preventing our spiritual growth, that ole devil will do so.

Now, we didn’t talk about acknowledging confessing and repenting our sin.  That’s a given.  We can’t receive true forgiveness without doing these things, but we did talk about what happens after we’ve done these things. 

A quick refresher:  first we have to admit we have sinned, confess that sin before God then renounce that sin and our part in it.  No, we don’t have to get re-baptized should we sin (once we’re saved), but anointing with oil won’t hurt anything. 

What we did talk about is that our forgiveness means a cleansing with water (oil) and a Spiritual fire.  Our remission means speaking against our part in the sin and determining not to do it again.  When the enemy attacks, we stand our ground (in our forgiveness) rebuking our foe for what he is. 

Father gives us victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord (1 Corinth. 15:57) because He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5-6). 

When Isaiah said God puts our sin behind His back, that means, for Him, it’s over and done with.  We start afresh with a clean slate.

Forgiveness means being cleansed and setting what has been done behind us and not looking back.  We do it for others.  We do it for ourselves because God has done it for us.

So what is true forgiveness?  You tell me!

Amen

 11-7-2020 Joseph’s Dream

No, I don’t mean the sheaves.  Not that Joseph.  I mean Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth.

Matthew 1:18-25

This is how the birth of Jesus happened.  When His mother Mary had been espoused (engaged) to Joseph, as they were not yet living together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost.

Her husband Joseph was a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

But while he thought on these things, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost (Isa. 7:14).

And she shall bring forth a son whom you shall name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.” 

 Now all this was done so that the word of the prophet of the Lord might be fulfilled which was:

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is interpreted ‘God is with us’”

Then being raised from his sleep, Joseph did as the angel said and took upon himself his wife.

And he did not know her until she had brought forth her first born son and named Him ‘Jesus’.

In those days, families would arrange marriages between a man and a woman.  I guess this was kind of like an engagement for Joseph and Mary as they were not living together as man & wife, that is until he brought her into his home. 

It was during this engagement period that Mary was found to be pregnant.  We know that when the angel told Mary she would have a child, she replied that she had not been in an intimate relationship with any man, how could this be (Luke 1:34)?  A woman, untouched by any man and now is with child, how could this be (conceived, of course, by the Holy Ghost)? 

How did God create the world?  He spoke and the Holy Ghost put His Words into action (Gen. 1:1-31) so God spoke and put His Word into Mary’s womb.  In the natural, though pregnant, she remained a true virgin!

Let’s take a closer look at Joseph.  Joseph knew that, if he brought Mary’s condition to public knowledge, people who engaged in pre-marital or extra-marital activities could be stoned – to death (John 8:3-11).  He wasn’t going to let this happen.  So, before anybody else could realize what had happened, he brought her into his home as his wife – knowing that she was with child.  Realizing the lack of virginity in a wife, a Jewish man could divorce his wife (Deut. 22:13-30, 1 Corinth. 7:32-40, Matt. 19:7-9).  Joseph did not, but kept Mary.  He decided to keep her as his wife though all he had was the angel’s word. The angel’s word was from God.  Dare I say that Joseph believed God? 

Now, the angel says two things to Joseph about Jesus.  First, Joseph is told to call his, yet to be born, son “Jesus”.  This is New Testament so the word used for Jesus is the Greek word ‘Iesous’ (G2424) which is derived from the Hebrew word ‘Yeohowshuwa’ (H3091) and ‘yasha’ (H3467).  Today, so we see it as Jesus, meaning ‘God-saved’ and ‘preserve, save, get victory’ (respectively from the Hebrew root).  So we translate Jesus as savior.  Second is Emmanuel which Matthew translates for us as ‘God is with us’.  The base words here are ‘Emmanouel’ (G1694) & Immanuwel (H6005), either of which is a combination of im (H5973) and el (H410) which mean ‘with us is God’.

Understanding that this was prophecy from Isaiah, Joseph, believing prophecy, took Mary as His wife (so none could accuse her) and did not have intimate relations with her until after Jesus was born.  No chance of misconstruing who was, or was not, the father.  Mary was a virgin before conception until after the time that Jesus had been born.

Though people may assume that Jesus was the son of Joseph (Matt. 13:54-57).  Joseph knew who Jesus’ real Father is and Mary was spared the disgrace of being accused (therefore stoned).

Now, Jesus also knew who His real Father is.  When He was about twelve, his family had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the Passover and after, when they had travelled about a day, headed home, they realized that Jesus wasn’t with them.  Not finding Him with any of the other relatives, they went back to Jerusalem and found Him talking with the doctors (G1320 – didaaskalos -  doctor, teacher, master).  Mary explained that they were worried about Him, but Jesus asked “Why were you looking for me?  Didn’t you know that I should be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:42-49) Jesus spoke not of His step-dad but, of course, His real Father.

So, now, when we look at the two names the angel of God gave to Joseph we draw a conclusion that, from the Old Testament, God is with us and in the New Testament, to save us.  In short, God, Himself, came in the flesh to save us from our sin!  You ask “How can this be?”  Can we separate Father from His Word which is put into action via the Holy Ghost? 

An example from my youth.  A bunch of us were together.  I think I was saying that I could take a punch to the gut, so one of the boys punched me in the stomach.  It knocked my breath out – completely.  My lips moved, but no sound came out.  I was trying to tell them that I was OK, just trying to get my breath back.  Father used this incident to explain (later) how Father, Son and Holy Ghost work together.  We know that when someone speaks to us, the breath from their mouth carries that sound to our ears.  The outer ear funnels that sound into the middle ear which stimulates the inner ear causing vibrations enabling us to hear the noise or words.

Briefly, God speaks.  What does He speak?  What do we speak when we talk?  Words!  Our breath carries our words to others so they can hear what we say.  If you will, our breath puts our words into action.  Now, the only action our words can take is to enable someone else to hear what we say.  When we speak, we stimulate the air around us.  If you will, that means our words ‘shift’ the atmosphere.  God, being God, when He speaks Words, His breath (the Holy Ghost) shifted not only the atmosphere but everything that was, bringing everything into being, existence.  The big difference is that it takes some sort of physical action to back up the words when we speak (James 2:17-19).  When Father speaks, the Holy Ghost shifts the atmosphere to accomplish what Father has said.  All we do is moves the air around us.  When God speaks, the Holy Ghost moves everything to accomplish God’s Word.  We should be careful of what we say, though, for we don’t know when words will come to pass (Prov. 18:21).  God’s Words don’t come back void (Isa. 55:11) and whether we realize it or not, He honors our words and brings them into being. 

Joseph had a dream.  He did as the angel directed so our Lord could be born into this world, as a human, to redeem us from our sins.  Joseph’s dream helps us to understand John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and he Word was God.”

Joseph of Nazareth had a dream, or a vision (if you will).  His dream fulfilled prophecy that God (Himself) was coming into this world to redeem us back into His kingdom!        

Concerning his bride to be, Joseph did right in the sight of God.  He chose to keep Mary as his wife even though the law allowed him to ‘dump’ her.  Joseph demonstrated that he was most likely to follow the ‘Spirit’ of the law rather than just the ‘letter’ of the law.  We may conclude that Joseph was not just a ‘just man’ but a righteous man therefore a good role model for the child Jesus.

Just something to think about in respects to the unity of the Godhead and how Father works in our lives.  And, being righteous through Jesus Christ, maybe we should be following Joseph’s example.  Hmmmm?

Amen