Holding High the Word of Life

Holding High the Word of Life - Numbers 30:2 Words must be sacred. The word God says is sacred. The words we speak must be absolutely sacred. Your voice is dedicated to divinity (God's own nature, supernatural being worshipped), the essence and nature of God. The sacred is worthy of respect. Giving a few words through our mouths must be sacred because Divinity is in our lives.

I. The precept (order, instruction, command) that is given in relation to these vows is that they are conscientiously fulfilled (attention or careful attention).

A. This law was declared to the chiefs of the tribes.

1. The chiefs of the tribes, so that they in turn, instructed in it (law) those who were in their charge.

2. He who makes a vow to the Lord, pledging himself to do something permitted, is said to "bind his soul with obligation."

3. It is a vow to God, who is Spirit, and to Him must be bound the spirit with all its faculties and all its powers.

4. The promise made to a man is an obligation on the estate, but the promise made to God is an obligation on the soul.

5. Here the classic fits well: To the king the estate and life has to be given, but honor is the patrimony of the soul and the "soul is only of God".

6. (Deuteronomy 23:21) The fulfillment of the vows with which our own souls have been bound in the presence of God is urgent.

7. Once the vote has been made, the person is strictly bound to fulfill it.

8. (Ecclesiastes 5:4) The vow is a bondage.

9. Only with its faithful fulfillment does one let go of it.

10. Two reasons are given to us for the joyful and prompt fulfillment of the vows: (A) For otherwise, we affront God, because He does not take pleasure in fools; (B) Because otherwise, we harm ourselves, by incurring the corresponding punishment; (C) Excuses are useless.

11. (Matthew 4:4) Jesus responded to temptation by quoting God's Word.

12. Our Lord's example teaches that we "don't" have to live on bread alone, but that "indeed" we have to obey God!

13. Getting "bread" is not the most important thing in life.

14. Most important is obedience to "all the word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

15. Because Jesus had not received instructions from the Father to turn stones into loaves, He was not going to act on His own accord and obey Satan in this way, no matter how intense His hunger was.

16. (John 6:63) The people had been thinking in terms of the material flesh of Christ, but here He told them that eternal life is not obtained by eating meat but by the work of God's Spirit.

17. The flesh cannot be life; only the Spirit can do this.

18. They had taken their words literally and did not realize that they were to be understood spiritually.

19. And so the Lord Jesus explains here that the "words He had spoken to them" were spirit and were "life."

20. When His sayings about eating His flesh and drinking His blood were understood in a spiritual way, as meaning faith in Him, then those who accepted the message would receive eternal life.

21. (Philippians 2:15-16) It is said, "As lights, we shine, but this does not excuse us from testifying with our voices.

22. There should be the double testimony of lives and lips.

23. If the Philippians follow these instructions, the apostle knows that he will have some reason to boast "in the day of Christ."

24. "He feel a responsibility" not only to see souls saved, but also to present each one perfect in Christ. (Colossians 1:28) Amen.