As For Me And My House

                                                                   Joshua 24:15
       But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

      First let us establish that Joshua and Jesus are the same name. Jesus is translated from the Greek, and Joshua is translated from Hebrew. That's why in the book of Acts we see a reference to Joshua but his name is translated as Jesus. Acts 7:45 KJV. Joshua's name means "Jehovah Saved". Joshua during his long life never turned to the left or the right, but stayed on the straight path, with his eyes fixed on God. But there weren't many like Joshua in Israel, and there aren't many Christians like him today. Most of us have wondered off the path from time to time. And some of us are on the path, but we are carrying things that we should have put away from us years ago. And some of us have put these things away from us, but not so far away that we can't go and get them from time to time. What we need to do is bury these things like they are dung, and never dig them up again.
                                                                Deuteronomy 23
 ¹² Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. ¹³ As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴ For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.
 
     This has a spiritual as well as a practical side to it. To see how a Jew would comply with this under religious law, we need to look at something Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century, wrote about the Essene. This is the Jewish sect that is responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls. Josephus describes how each new member of the sect is given a small hatchet.

                                                      Josephus, Book II, Chapter 8.
7. But now if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect, he is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same method of living which they use for a year, while he continues excluded'; and they give him also a small hatchet, and the fore-mentioned girdle, and the white garment.

     He goes on to describe one of the uses of this hatchet.

 9. Moreover, they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day before, that they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will not remove any vessel out of its place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on other days they dig a small pit, a foot deep, with a paddle (which kind of hatchet is given them when they are first admitted among them); and covering themselves round with their garment, that they may not affront the Divine rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit, after which they put the earth that was dug out again into the pit; and even this they do only in the more lonely places, which they choose out for this purpose; and although this easement of the body be natural, yet it is a rule with them to wash themselves after it, as if it were a defilement to them.

     Here we see the Essene putting away excrement from them into a pit and burying it. In this way they kept the command of Moses and remained ceremonially clean. But Jesus said to the Pharisees, another Jewish sect, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." Matthew 15:11. Explaining this to his disciples Jesus said; "Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?" Matthew 15:17.  So to be ceremonially clean on the outside, doesn't mean that they're not full of dead mens bones on the inside.

     If your pastor came to visit, do you have things in your house that you wouldn't want him to see. Do you go around your house and hide these things before he comes. Jesus sees these things. Think on that for a minute. Now take those things out and bury them like dung, (I'm speaking metaphorically)  and ask God to deliver you from them, and never go and dig them up again. God will bless you and protect you, and deliver your enemies (the things that vex your soul and cause God to turn away from you) into your hands.

Saved by Grace; Thru Faith

                                                                  Romans 3:28
            Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith                               without the deeds of the law.
     The sentiment of a self righteous person. " Why should I be punished for the sin of Adam? I'm a good person and it isn't right for God to punish me for what Adam did thousands of years ago." This is someone who is a good person by the standards of our society. They work and support their families, they're good husbands or wives. They're faithful to their spouse. They love and are dedicated to their children. They care for and respect their parents. They obey the law, and they're good citizens. So is it right for God to punish these "good people" for what Adam did?
     What was the nature of Adam's sin, and why should it be transferred to his descendants? An Omnipotent God, who had just created the earth and everything in it, the universe and everything in it, created man in his own image. God gave Adam, who he loved, one command. Do not eat of the tree of knowledge, if you do you will surely die. Would God be just, or unjust if he did not enforce his law? Every reasonable person would agree that a judge who does not enforce the law is unjust. But God is not unjust, he will enforce his law!  Abraham who loved his nephew Lot, pleaded with God to spare Sodom if there were only ten righteous people there. God, who's love surpasses all the understanding of man, from the time of Adam's sin, looked down through the ages and saw Abraham, David, Job, Mary Magdalene, and Paul, along with millions more, and he was moved with great love and compassion. Therefore he transferred his judgment to the earth from which Adam was made, and delayed the judgment of death, and allowed Adam to die according to how he was made. He was made from dust and to dust he would return. By doing this God made it possible for all of us to be born. "But by the sin of one man, death entered the world," Romans 5:12. What conclusion is there then? The verdict has been handed down and a judgment rendered. All who come from Adam are subject to this judgment, as we were in Adam' loins, we would've been partakers of this judgment had it been immediately carried out. But God loves us and he wants to redeem us from the curse.
     The Garden of Eden was planted by God, Genesis 2:8, it was paradise, a place were God and man could fellowship and commune together. This was a place that God could come and walk and talk face to face with his son, whom he loved. This is at the very heart of what God wants. To have close fellowship with the son that he created in his own image. After Adam sinned against God this type of close fellowship was no longer possible. Adam, nor any of his descendants could have that close relationship with God in his garden. Sin separated man from God's paradise. Adam's death, nor ours, as we all come from Adam, can restore this relationship, as his death was punitive and not redemptive. As the Garden of Eden is a type or shadow of heaven. God's relationship with Enoch is a type or shadow of the kind of relationship that God wants with all of his children. To commune and fellowship face to face in his Kingdom. Not with the dead, but with the living, as the Lord is the God of the living and not the dead, Luke 20:38. But God had a plan that was in his mind from the foundation of the world, a plan that would restore a close fellowship with those that love him and will obey him, and he began immediately to put this plan into action. After the fall of man God gave a promise of the seed of woman, Genesis 3:15, that would destroy the works of Satan that had brought about the fall of man.  God's righteousness demands a penalty for sin. So we need to be redeemed, a price must be paid. The scales of justice with God's righteous judgment on one side, demanded equal merit on the other side. Only the righteous sinless nature of God himself could balance the scales. So we have come to the question that has been a mystery from the foundation of the world. 1 Corinthians 2:6-9. What is God's plan of redemption, and how can we be partakers of this redemptive plan of God?
     God immediately began to teach man that his own efforts could not redeem him. We see the first born seed of woman bringing an offering of his own labors, an offering that sprang forth from the earth. From the ground that God had cursed, ground from which man was made. The Lord rejected this offering, but he had respect for the offering of his brother. An offering that was a shadow of the promise, the seed of woman that would redeem man. "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:14
     That Adam had a free will is evident from his punishment, if he didn't have a free will he wouldn't have been held accountable. Cain is held accountable for the murder of Abel. If he did not know that it was wrong to kill his brother, how could he be held accountable? Although they had not seen a man die, they knew that they would die. They knew that death was a punishment. They had seen the first born lamb die that was Abel's offering to God. Cain did not want to die, but he wanted his brother to die. So all that come from the loins of Adam have a free will, and so we see that by the time of Noah all men have gone into sin. And God is sorry that he made man.In Genesis 9:6 God establishes additional punishment for murder. Besides murder, what was mans sin?  Could it be Genesis 2:24. God had made woman for man, could it be the sin of Sodom? Men leaving the natural use of the woman and lusting after men, and women lusting after women?
     But Noah found grace in the eyes of God. For he was a just man and righteous in his generation. God knew that Noah would obey him, so he saved Noah and all that were with him. Noah's name means rest. When his father named him he said "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed." Genesis 5:29. Did he think that Noah would be the promised seed of woman who would redeem man from the curse? God had told Noah that he was going to destroy all flesh because the earth was full of violence through them, Genesis 6:13. So we have to conclude that the men of Noah's time knew that they were doing evil, and it was sin. "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law" Romans 2:12a." For all have sinned, and came short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23.
     Moses lead the people of God out of Egypt and gave them the law. and God gave them manna, bread from heaven, to eat for 40 years, delivered them from their enemies time and again, and brought them into the land that he had promised to their fathers, and gave them the Tabernacle, were his presents would be. Moses speaking to the children of Israel before they crossed over Jordan, tells them; "Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee." Deuteronomy 9:4. So if it is not because of their own righteousness that God is bring them into his promise land, and Paul tells us; "And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;" Romans 2:12b.  And again Paul says; "For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Galatians 2:16b. If all have sinned, with or without the law, how can we be saved?
     As God provided bread from heaven for the children of Israel in the wilderness, and all that was required of them was go and gather it every morning, God has provided Bread from heaven for us as well! Jesus said; "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:51. When God cursed the ground he told Adam that by the sweat of his brow would he eat his bread. And here we see a thread that is woven through the whole Bible. The bread. The Bread. Not the bread that is made by the hand of man, but the Bread that comes down from heaven. "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."John 6:33-35. And here we rejoice as we begin to see the plan of God. His plan is not only to save Israel, but everyone that will come to him and believe! This bread that was a symbol of the curse has become a powerful symbol of the redemptive work of God through Christ. "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body." Matthew 26:26. The plan of salvation is the work of God from start to finish. What must you do to be saved? The Philippian jailer asked that same question of Paul and Silas "what must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30. They told him to believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. He did, and he and his family were saved! As God provided the manna, the children had to gather it. How do we gather the Bread of life? We do it by and act of faith."That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Romans 10:9. It is not by our own righteousness that we are saved, but by an act of faith that we are justified.
     So we must conclude that we are saved by faith and not by works! But what does James say? "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" James 2:20. So what must we conclude? That we are saved by faith and not works, the evidence that we have the faith to be saved is our works. Hear what Jesus has to say about the works of the righteous and the unrighteous.
                                                                Matthew 25                        

³⁵For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
 ³⁶Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
 ³⁷Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
 ³⁸When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
 ³⁹Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
 ⁴⁰And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
 ⁴¹Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
 ⁴²For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
 ⁴³I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
 ⁴⁴Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
 ⁴⁵Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
 ⁴⁶And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Why did God reject Cain's offering?

                                                                 Ephesians 2:8-9

     Saved by grace: and not by works, lest any man should boast.

    The Bible tells us that everyone will stand before God one day to give an account for the way they live their lives. "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both the just and the unjust.' Acts 24:15. 'Every knee shall bow,...and every tongue shall confess..' Romans 14:11. Now, if the dead are going to answer to God for the manner in which they lived their life, ( For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10) it follows that a choice was put before them during their lives. Two roads were before them. One was wide and the other was narrow. Matthew 7:13-14. The just took the narrow way, and few there be that went that way. The unjust took the way that was wide, and many there be that went that way. And no one will be excused! Because creation testifies of the unseen hand of God. Romans 1:18-20. This was true when Abraham sought God, and it is still true today. But from that time until now, the wicked worship the thing that was created, and not the Creator! The one thing that wicked men desire to worship above all else, is man! Man has been trying to deify man since the beginning of time. Adam disobeyed God, because he wanted to be as a god. This was the original sin.  And death entered the world by the sin of one man, Adam. Romans 5:12

    In Genesis 3:7 we see the fall of man. Because Adam ate of the fruit that God had commanded that he not eat, death came into the world. Genesis 2:17. Before sin, Adam desired to walk with God in the cool of the garden, but after sin, he and his wife hid themselves from God. Genesis 3:8. Sin separates us from God, and we no longer desire to walk with him. The serpent, (or Satan, Revelation 20:2) beguiled Eve because of her own lust to be as a god, and her ignorance of God's word, as she added to what God had said, by saying if they touched the fruit of the tree they would die. God did not say if you touch it you will die, but that if you eat it you will die. From this statement of her's we can hear the serpents reply, "no, you won't die, go ahead, touch it". The woman was deceived and the man wasn't; 1 Timothy 2:14. And the woman touches it, and she doesn't die. (But death did come into the world, 1 Corinthians 15:21. And sin separates us from God, Isaiah 59:1-2.) And her husband was there watching, and saw his wife take the fruit. And she did eat, and she gave to her husband, and he did eat. Genesis 3:6. Although the man wasn't deceived, he took from his wife and did eat. So we can conclude that he willfully sinned against God. We have to say that they believed Satan, and did not believe God. Satan is the father of lies, John 8:44; God cannot lie, Titus 1:2. But, Adam, the father of us all, believed Satan and not God. At the very least he desired his wife more than he desired God, and sinned against a most Holy God. And by this sin, death entered the world. (For as in Adam all die,)  1 Corinthians 15:22.

     Who has the power of death? Satan. Hebrews 2:14. How did he get it? He got it by the sin of Adam. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; Romans 5:12. It is evident that the sin of Adam separates all from God, even the righteous such as Abraham. It is apparent that Abraham didn't go to heaven at his death, because if so, why need Christ come and die. There is a corporate punishment for sin that falls on Adam and all that come from him, including Eve, who was made from his rib, and not from the dust of the ground as Adam was. This comes on all, from the new born baby free of personal sin, to a wretched sinner who has lived a long life. One to be carried by the angels into the arms of God, and the other to be judged for his sins. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment;" Hebrews 9:27. But now for the justified, as Paul says, "to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" 2 Corinthians 5:8.

    There is also a personal price for sin to be paid in this life. Some of this cost can also be passed on to others who will also pay for your sin. When God confronts the man, he blames the woman who God had put in the garden with him, and she says the serpent beguiled her. So God cursed the serpent "You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life." Gen. 3:14. Here God also gave a promise, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen 3:15. This is a promise of the coming Redeemer. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Romans 5:19. The woman's personal punishment was to have her pain in childbearing increased. This is a punishment which was passed on to all women. And to the man who bore most of the responsibility, because he listen to his wife and not to God, and did that which God had commanded him not to do, God cursed the ground from whence he was made. Whereas before, he and Eve had eaten freely from all that God provided, now he would work the ground by the sweat of his brow to get his bread. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen 3:19. And there it is! The pronouncement of death! For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return! This was on Adam and everyone who comes from him, including Eve. But we know as Job knew, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:" Job 19:25. I would suppose that Satan thought God would immediately carry out this sentence of death, but God cursed the ground from which Adam was made, and allowed him to live a natural lifetime according to how he was made. The process of dying began that day, but not the fact. Had he died that day we would have died with him. But God loved us, so he cursed the ground and the earth was changed. Physical death came into the world on all living things because God cursed the ground, " for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return". We are partakers of the punishment with Adam, in that we all must die. But the just will go to be with Christ, Philippians 1:23. And the unjust will go to be held until the day of judgment. 2 Peter 2:9.

     Sin separates us from God. We see how Adam and Eve hid themselves from God because of their sin, and how God took the skins of animals and covered them. In this we see a type, this covering for sin points to the Lamb of God, the promised seed. For "without the shedding of blood there is no remission." Hebrews 9:22. "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Hebrews 9:12. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." John 1:29. God had covered their sin, and to kept them from taking fruit from the tree of life, and thereby saving themselves by their own efforts, God put them out of the garden. Although God had put them out of the garden, he hadn't completely put them out of his presence.

    In Genesis 4 the sons of Adam bring an offering to the Lord. In verse 2 we're told that Cain is a tiller of the ground, and Abel is a keeper of sheep. Verse 3 says "in the process of time", which would suggest longer than a few months, but  maybe a year or longer, "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Verse 4 tells us that "Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, verse 5. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." The firstborn of the flock would suggest and annual offering, as well as the fruit of the ground which would probably be from an annual harvest.

    God rejects Cains offering, this rejection was not arbitrary. Cain knew what the offering should be, he had learned from his father Adam, who had learn it from God. This was probably an offering that Cain had witnessed many times during his life, (I think it was and annual offering) and Cain willfully brought a different offering. God rebuked Cain "if thou doest well, shalt thou be accepted?" Genesis 4:7. Cain knew what he had done was wrong. God warns Cain, "sin is at the door and desires to have you". Then God encouraged Cain "and thou shalt rule over him." God was telling Cain that he needed to get the mastery over sin before it destroyed him. To understand why God rejected Cains offering we need to look at his offering. Some have suggested that Cain did not bring the best of his fruits, but held back the best for himself. This doesn't explain why he was so angry and disappointed when God rejected his offering. Cain brought to God the fruits of the ground, ground which God had cursed. The ground would no longer yield forth it's fruit but by hard work. By the sweat of man's brow will he eat his bread. Cain had worked very hard, and these were the fruits of his labor. Cain had taken the very best of the fruits of his hard work and God had rejected them. The offering of the firstborn lamb was a shadow of the coming redeemer, the fruit of the ground spoke directly of Cain. Cain should have gone to his brother and gotten from him a firstborn lamb to make and offering to the Lord. That  was an offering that looked to God's promise of the  seed of woman who would bring salvation! Cain, the firstborn of Eve, wanted to earn favor with God by his own works. And what did Adam do when he saw that his son had brought an offering of his own works to the Lord? Probably the same thing he did when Eve took of the fruit of the tree. He watched to see what God would do.

    To see the love and providence of God, we need to look at Abel and his offering. God did not curse the animals but the ground from which man was made. The fruit of the womb, be it man or animal is the gift of God. So this gift came from God's providence, and Abel offers this gift from God, as an offering to God. Can you see John 3:16 in this offering.  Abel is called a prophet by the Lord Jesus in Luke 11:50-51. How was he a prophet? Paul tells us in Hebrews. "By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead." Hebrews 11:4. By his works Abel demonstrated his faith, James 2:20. And this is how he speaks to us, he brought what God had provided and already belonged to God, and offered it to God. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. From the very beginning this offering pointed to the promised seed of woman, and God's plan of salvation. "And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Hebrews 12:24.

    We see how Cain in his jealousy killed his brother Abel. And God cursed Cain for his sin and Cain was driven from the presence of God. Our sin separates us from God. And as Cain was separated from God, so was his wife and children. Our sins affect us and those around us. But God has provided a way. The Lamb of God died in our stead. "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Acts 2:21. Take the free gift from God and offer it to him as the fruits of your lips."For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10:10.

                                                                 Philippians 2

 ⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

 ¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

 ¹¹And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 ¹²Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

As it is written, "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. Don't wait until another day. You have no promise of tomorrow!

                                                                

                                                                   ^{Revelation 13}

 ⁸And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.