Occupational Christianity
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Sermon Scripture
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3 So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?
I titled this sermon, “Occupational Christianity”.
A Christian is a follower of Christ. It is a disciple as we discussed last week.
A occupation is the act of taking possession (to occupy). In the sense of your occupation, it is that which engages the time and attention of you. It is that which you devote your time and study to…the principal business of one’s life, their vocation, calling or trade. It is the business which is followed by one for the obtaining of a living and of wealth.
Again my sermon title is “Occupational Christianity” implying hopefully what the scripture is teaching and where we are going this morning and have been going over the past few weeks.
3 So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?
19 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;
This is God’s Word - not the word of James. This is the Word of God which we search and thus have revealed to us Jesus Christ.
This letter is written primarily to Jews scattered abroad, but the application comes all the way to us.
We will read in James that God begat us. (v.18)
V19 -
MY BELOVED BRETHREN: Yes this is to Jews, but also we must note the application of “beloved brethren”. That God Almighty would call us beloved. That we would be the beloved brethren of Christ. The perfection of the new creation.
There is only one you. Made up of flesh and spirit. The you has both a old and a new man. The flesh can only sin. The Spirit can only sin.
The old man is quick to hear. The new man is quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to wrath. Because God is working all things together for our good. Because we are trusting in God.
SWIFT TO HEAR: The only way to be swift to hear is to be in this book, the Word.
You do not hear by what I say, but the Word of God. Oh how much time we spend looking for someone that we like to listen to. You are not to hear a man, but the Word of God.
SLOW TO WRATH: If God is working something in your life and that something makes you mad then in reality you are mad at God and you don’t want that.
20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
MANS WRATH CANNOT WORK/ACHIEVE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
Jesus Christ has accomplished the righteousness of God revealed in His faithfulness even unto the cross. That is what works God’s righteousness, not the wrath of man.
Since mans wrath does not work God’s righteousness we should put aside the remains of wickedness (the flesh…you know if it is of the flesh), and receive in humility the Word implanted/ingrafted..(my sheep hear my voice)...able to save your souls.
16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.
In modern times save is considered redeemed. But Timothy is already redeemed and Timothy cannot cause another to be born again. There is no passage of scripture that declares that anything that you do can cause you to be born again.
However once you are born again, you need to be saved (delivered) from fear, from the law, from the flesh and so on...
It is only by His word that you know these things. It is only by His Word that you know that those whom He has redeemed He has perfected forever.
1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,
“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,
But a body You have prepared for Me;
6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.
7 “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come
(In the scroll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
8 After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws upon their heart,
And on their mind I will write them,”
He then says,
17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds
I will remember no more.”
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, 33 partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. 34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. 35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
37 For yet in a very little while,
He who is coming will come, and will not delay.
38 But My righteous one shall live by faith;
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Ephesians…He chose you
WORD IMPLANTED:
This is the word which is ingrafted or implanted, meaning the ingrafting is ingrafted…it has been ingrafted.
Leading to our text this morning is the making clear by the Holy Spirit that the ingrafting has been done. Jesus Christ has accomplished for us the righteousness of God.
,
Do not leave verse 21 without realizing what is being said.
God has given you His Word which is able to deliver your life.
Nobody absent from this book has known that:
To die is better than to live or to be absent from the body is to be with Christ.
Nobody has known absent from this book that life is not an empty pursuit of self, but to live is Christ.
So
RECEIVE WITH HUMBLENESS THE WORD WHICH IS ABLE TO SAVE YOUR LIFE.
Without that you live in pagan rituals, fear, law fear of death, manipulations and demands of the world and so on..
1 Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled themselves at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there; and the land was subdued before them.
2 There remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance. 3 So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? 4 Provide for yourselves three men from each tribe that I may send them, and that they may arise and walk through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance; then they shall return to me. 5 They shall divide it into seven portions; Judah shall stay in its territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay in their territory on the north. 6 You shall describe the land in seven divisions, and bring the description here to me. I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. 7 For the Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh also have received their inheritance eastward beyond the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.”
8 Then the men arose and went, and Joshua commanded those who went to describe the land, saying, “Go and walk through the land and describe it, and return to me; then I will cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh.” 9 So the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities in seven divisions in a book; and they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh. 10 And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord, and there Joshua divided the land to the sons of Israel according to their divisions.
Joshua
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
BUT PROVE YOURSELVES:
To become, to arise - to stand.
This is the hill to die on. Take your stand here, make your aim this, seek this transformation…become....
DOERS OF THE WORD:
A doer is one who does. It is one who performs or executes what is required. It is one who observes, keeps or practices in this case…the Word.
The word for Word is logos…it is genetive. It could be rightly said here to, make doing the word of God your occupation.
An occupation of any kind that requires ones total diligence makes it impossible to be an expert in any other field.
You have to decide…if your occupation is fleshly then you will not be an expert student of the Word. And well in eternity what will that fleshly occupation gain you.
Make your aim, your goal, your occupation to be a student, a doer of the Word. Friends that goes for every Christian, every hearer of the Word, every sheep of Christ.
No occupation that you can go to college or grade school for can offer you anything close to what is given to you in the Word of God. Every Word is God breathed…what earthly occupation can compete with that?
If not…if we only profess to believe but do not make it our occupation…that is that the word has no application in our lives then all that we are doing with our lives is deluding or deceiving ourselves into thinking that the Word has made some effect in our lives when it hasn’t.
NOT MERELY HEARERS WHO DELUDE THEMSELVES:
The word for delude can also be translated as deceive.
If you say that you love the Lord or if you say that you trust the Lord and yet you spend no time with Him, have no hunger for the Word and the Word serves no part of you life then isn’t it right to at the very least suspect that statement?
You say you love, but your occupation is that other than the Word then you are deceived.
You say you trust, but your occupation is that other than the Word then you are deceived by your own confession.
Listen beloved: Our citizenship is in Heaven, our occupation is in being doers of the Word of God.
The type of deception spoken of here is clarified in the example given in verse 23-25:
FOR IF ANYONE IS A HEARER OF THE WORD AND NOT A DOER, HE IS LIKE A MAN WHO LOOKS AT HIS NATURAL FACE IN A MIRROR; FOR (ONCE) HE HAS LOOKED AT HIMSELF AND GONE AWAY, HE HAS IMMEDIATELY FORGOTTEN WHAT KIND OF PERSON HE WAS.
What do you see when you look in a mirror: The flesh, the old man.
If one has not made the word his occupation then he is looking at his natural face in the mirror. He can dress it up as much as He can, but it is still flesh. The natural man only sins. Only the new man can show the works of the Spirit.
When man looks in the mirror all of His attention is focussed on the flesh and He forgets the man that He is. He forgets the new man that he has been made.
The contrast is between a mirror which displays the flesh,
and the ingrafted Word which reveals the innor man.
The mirror only displays the flesh, the Word reveals the inner man and the horror of the flesh.