Martin Luther and God’s Law
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Important messages
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| (click to see Luther's quote in larger print) |
I am about half-way through reading Luther's commentary
on Galatians for the second time. I read it many years ago and I find things of
high value for Christians, especially in our day, and I feel obligated to pass
them on. I want to lay before you Luther's claim that the Law must be implemented in evangelism. I hope the reader will understand that I am not talking about keeping the law (because he is a new man, from his heart he is compatible with the law of God's nature) but using it to show
the sinner that he is guilty before God.
For several decades, Ray Comfort has been trying to
reestablish this same principle in the church. I, for one, believe him and
hopefully, God´s people will understand and accept his affirmation as Bible
truth. Of course, he is not the only one, who sees this need in our day. There
are men and churches that have never departed from proclaiming the Law in
conjunction with the preaching of the gospel, but unfortunately, they have
mostly gone unnoticed.
You Are Greatly Beloved
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Daniel
The Book of the
Prophet Daniel
“But you, Daniel, shut up
the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.”
Daniel
12:4
Chapter
10:1-21 You Are Greatly Beloved
1. In the third year of Cyrus king of
Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And the word
was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had
understanding of the vision.
2. In those days I, Daniel, was
mourning for three weeks.
3. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine
entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three
weeks.
4. On the twenty-fourth day of the
first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the
Tigris)
5. I lifted up my eyes and looked, and
behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his
waist.
6. His body was like beryl, his face
like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and
legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the
sound of a multitude.
7. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision,
for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell
upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.
8. So I was left alone and saw this
great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was
fearfully changed, and I retained no strength.
9. Then I heard the sound of his words,
and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my
face to the ground.
10. And behold, a hand touched me and
set me trembling on my hands and knees.
Two
years had passed since the vision of chapter 9 took place. In the first chapter
(v.21), we saw that Daniel’s governmental position continued through the first
year of King Cyrus. He is still alive, of course, but now he can dedicate his
time to prayer for the deliverance and well-being of his people. Daniel has
seen truth, and the full force of the understanding of truth often brings
conflict to the human heart… Daniel said that the truth revealed to him was great conflict and he entered that
conflict. For that reason, some prefer to be left in the dark.
The Seventy Weeks
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Daniel
The Book of the
Prophet Daniel
“But you, Daniel, shut up
the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.”
Daniel
12:4
Chapter 9:20-27 The
Seventy Weeks
20. While I was speaking and praying,
confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea
before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God,
21. while I was speaking in prayer, the
man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift
flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.
22. He made me understand, speaking with
me and saying, "O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and
understanding.
23. At the beginning of your pleas for
mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly
loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.
Daniel’s
prayer has been conducted according to the Word of God, presented in the book
of Jeremiah. The study of the Word goes hand in hand with prayer. I mentioned
in my commentary over the first part of this chapter that Daniel prayed in the
first person plural… we. One might
conclude that his identification with the people was strictly national… he was
praying, as a fellow Jew. Or possibly, he might be tempted to see Daniel as a
bit sanctimonious, attempting to appear humble before God. Of course, we need
to reject any such thoughts and see this man, acutely aware of his own sin. The
order in the first verse of this lesson is, first of all, “my sin”, and then
“the sin of my people Israel”. All genuine men of God walk in the light that
reveals their own sin, before the sins of others.
Daniel was in the act of prayer, when the answer came; we might say that he prayed
until the answer came. Gabriel, the angel who was named in chapter eight, when
Daniel was in Susa in his vision, has returned. He appears as a man and yet, he
is flying. He comes swiftly: When a person is praying in the will of God, with
only the fulfillment of His purposes in mind, God is not only willing to
answer, but He sends the answer swiftly. It may be worthwhile to mention, that
the ways of heaven have always been superior to the ways of earth. Long before
the jet age on earth, heaven messaged by “air mail”.
In
prayer, Daniel was in the Spirit, involved with Zion, “the holy hill of my God”,
and his time schedule is in tune with “the evening sacrifice”. Once
Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the temple, the evening and morning sacrifices
ceased, but Daniel’s thoughts were still in accordance with the way things God
had ordained that they should be. The man of God cannot forget these things,
because they find their fulfillment in Christ, the hope of Israel. The arrival
of Gabriel corresponds with the ninth-hour whole burnt offering, which was the
time of day, when Jesus cried with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. “Who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God” (He.9:14). This is the answer to the sin
problem, for which Daniel has interceded.
Daniel's Heartfelt Prayer
Labels:
Daniel
The Book of the
Prophet Daniel
“But you, Daniel, shut up
the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.”
Daniel
12:4
Chapter 9:1-19 Daniel's Heartfelt Prayer
1. In the first year of Darius the son
of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—
2. in the first year of his reign, I,
Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word
of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the
desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Timewise,
we are going back to within a year after the Persian conquest of Babylon. We
are coming up on a very important and joyful year for God´s people. It is
between 539 and 538 B.C. and the Judean captivity in Babylon began in 606 B.C.,
about 68 years earlier.
Why
is this so important? It is because Daniel is living within three years of the
fulfillment of a prophecy made by Jeremiah. Daniel has been studying the
Scriptures and that practice in itself is worthy of our consideration. Men of
God, who long to know the Lord’s plan and what He is bringing to pass in their
day, should be students of Scripture. God reveals His will through the Scriptures!
Let
us go to Jeremiah and remember the situation, when Israel was being threatened
by a Babylonian invasion. Up until recently before that time, Israel was, for
the most part, in denial, but now it had become crystal clear that Babylon
indeed was going to take Jerusalem. God commanded Jeremiah to put a yoke-bar on
his neck to symbolize the coming captivity, not only for Israel, but also for
Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon (Jer.27:2,3).
A
prophet named Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah and broke it, declaring that
the Lord would break Nebuchadnezzar’s hold on all those nations within two
years. Jeremiah said that he was making the people trust in a lie, because the
true prophets had prophesied war, famine and pestilence. A true prophet will
help the people confront truth, while a false prophet will try to please the
people, telling them what they want to hear (Jer.28:1-8,10). This has always
been the case with optimism, positive speaking and thinking. These false principles
continue today and A. W. Tozer called them heresy. See http://calltocommitment.blogspot.com.es/2017/07/positiveness-modern-heresy.html.
Indifference to Deception
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Important messages
A CURIOUS SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE MOVIES
THE SON OF GOD AND THE DA VINCI CODE
From time to time, the title of the
book and movie, The Da Vinci Code comes
up. Last night, I decided to watch it. Several times, I was at the point of
shutting it off, but, hoping that perhaps the theme would change, I managed to
watch it to the bitter end. I am not totally sorry that I did so, because it
brought to mind a movie, The Son of God, which
some “evangelicals” highly recommended three or four years ago. I’ll get back
to that a little later.
For those, who have not seen The Da Vinci Code, written by Dan Brown,
I am certainly not recommending that you do so. Moody Church pastor, Erwin
Lutzer, said that it was the worst attack on historic Christianity that he has
seen in his 30 years of ministry. He wrote a book to refute it, entitled The Da Vinci Deception, and a number of
other well-known evangelicals have also written against this devastating lie.
I will not get into many of the
details of Brown’s book/movie, except to say that it attempts to debunk the
divinity of Jesus. Brown also attempts to convince his readers that the book is
based on facts and legitimate documents. The fact is that it is wholly
fictional and Brown has only done enough research to make him dangerous. His
arguments are easily refuted by any student of church history. His main subject
is Leonard Da Vinci’s painting on the last supper, in which, Brown claims, Mary
Magdalene is painted just to the right of Christ, instead of the disciple,
John. John is beardless, but Da Vinci himself explains that he took other
drawings of John from different sources, and because he was a young man, he was
often depicted beardless. The Last Supper depicts the scene, where Jesus announces the betrayal and Peter is asking John to question Jesus, as to who is the betrayer.
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