Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 5 Study # 14
October 17, 2004
Lincolnton, N.C.
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Thesis: The fact that our enemies can still do rather significant damage to us makes it all the more necessary that we "buy" the promises.
Introduction: Last week we looked into the five specific ways that the Spirit insisted through Zacharias that Yahweh
means what He says. This reality is even more important than we think because the truth is that Yahweh means
more than He says. What I mean by that is this: there can be no promise made that does not inherently include every particle of the Truth. That means that Yahweh nevers
says anything that does not spring out of, and in harmony with, omniscience. But, neither has Yahweh ever said all that can be said in the light of omniscience. But this means that everything Yahweh does say has necessary implications for us in unstated ways. This morning I want to address the issue of the strength of faith as a matter related to "unstated necessary implications". I want to do this on the basis of the words of Zacharias regarding the "sworn holy covenant".
- I. Defining an "Unspoken Necessary Implication".
- A. By way of definition.
- 1. Every spoken word that is true "breaks out" from the inherent internal consistency of omniscience.
- a. Every particle of Truth is in harmony with every other particle of Truth.
- b. Every particle of Truth has direct harmonious relationships to every other particle of Truth.
- c. Thus, nothing "true" can be stated that does not, by the very nature of the case, bring all Truth along with it.
- 2. Every spoken word that is true brings with it the "necessary implications" of all Truth even though those implications are unspoken.
- B. By way of illustrations.
- 1. Since Zacharias' focus is upon the "sworn holy covenant", let's consider Abraham's growth in the "faith of understanding" as we see it in the written/spoken words.
- a. Abram had been promised three major specifics under the umbrella of the overall promise of "blessing": Genesis 12:1-3.
- 1) The umbrella promise was "...I will bless thee...and thou shalt be a blessing...".
- 2) Under that umbrella were three specific promises: a land, a nation, and a great name.
- b. In Galatians 3:14 Paul says that the "blessing of Abraham" is "the coming of the Spirit".
- 1) What Paul says is absolutely true and enormously necessary to our grasp of how we are supposed to live by faith.
- 2) But, what Paul says does not have an easy "association with" the "sworn holy covenant" in that there is little to nothing said in Abraham's entire 175 year lifetime about a "coming" of the Holy Spirit to indwell non-Jews as the fundamental expression of the "blessing of Abraham".
- c. Likewise, there is little to be found in Genesis 12:1-3 that specifically, verbally, addresses what Zacharias calls "salvation" as "the deliverance of us from the hands of all who hate us".
- d. By the same token, there is little to be found in Genesis 12:1-3 that specifically, verbally, addresses the "how" issues of the coming of a nation through a man who is married to a barren woman.
- 1) For this cause, Abram stumbled around in "unbelief" for many years because he did not "connect the dots" from the stated to the unstated.
- a) His multiple deceptions of kings about his wife's identity was such an act of stumbling.
- b) His escapade with Hagar is another such act.
- 2) But, in Genesis 22:5, after many years of "stumbling around" and gradually learning to take the words along with their necessary implications, we find Abraham saying words that seem to be completely insane in light of what he is planning to do.
- a) But, they are not insane; they are words of "faith".
- b) And, even though they were based upon a technically "untrue" premise (I am going to kill my son and God is going to raise him from the dead), they were truth and proved to be so.
- 2. Since Zacharias is talking about how absolutely true Yahweh's spoken words are, let's consider "faith" in them from the perspective of Jesus' comment about how "great" the faith of a non-Jew was in Matthew 8:5-13.
- a. The health of the body was a major aspect of the covenant Yahweh made with the nation of Israel and Messiah's coming was predicted to be marked by phenomenal restorations of physical health.
- b. There was little, to nothing, said in the covenant with Israel about the health of non-Israelites, and even less said about the "methods" of Messiah when He came.
- c. But, the centurion "leaped beyond" the written words to the unwritten, but necessary, implications.
- 1) He considered Yahweh's care for the nation an "automatic" implication of His care for others...even though they were not of the nation.
- 2) He also considered the fact that Yahweh's power for healing was not tied to close proximity (he was, for example, not tied to the woman's "faith" who felt that she "had" to touch Jesus' garment to obtain health).
- 3) He understood the issue of health was the issue of "authority" and the qualification for "blessing" was humility, so he exercised both and was commended by Jesus for going beyond what was written to what was "necessary".
- II. Luke's Message Through Zacharias to Theophilus.
- A. The promise of "salvation" as a "deliverance from our enemies" is a specific promise of security for the soul -- an integral part of the "nation" promise.
- B. The promise of "security" is real even though it does not carry the immediate fulness of the physical application of the promise of "salvation from our enemies".
- C. The reality of "security" is to be found in the twin concepts of resurrection and placement in the Holy City.
- D. The necessity of "faith" in the reality of "security" is absolute in view of the objective: serving Yahweh all of our days without fear.
- 1. Fearlessness requires one of two things...
- a. Either the reality of no enemies.
- b. Or the reality of the vanity of our enemies' plans.
- 2. And "serving Yahweh" requires fearlessness.
- a. To become fearless is to become convinced of the Truth.
- b. To become convinced of the Truth is to become convinced of the truths and to become aware of the Truth through the truths (in other words, we cannot have all of the Truth spoken to us -- omniscience cannot be expressed to the finite -- but every spoken truth is a door to that Truth and, even if something has not been spoken directly, we can believe it as long as what has been spoken requires it).
- c. The issue, then, is this: we must believe what has been spoken so that we are unshaken by the apparent "impossibilities" because they are nothing more than misunderstandings that will be clarified by the on-going process.
