How does the mystery of faith work ?
1 Timothy 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
The Jews were described by God as a stiffnecked people. God made clear the land of Israel, was not given to them for their righteousness.
God then tells what is required of Israel after this, to fear the Lord, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve with all of their heart and all of their soul, which is for their own good.
To be able to do this with their whole heart and soul, ( to love God) it is told it is necessary to circumcise their heart, to be no more stiffnecked.
Deuteronomy 9:6 Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
God also shows He loves the strangers among Israel by giving them food and clothing..
Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
15 Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.
Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
Now the Messiah came to earth, and teaches how to not be stiffnecked, how to have the heart circumcised ( by believing in Him)
Jesus teaches faith, and to the same Israel tells them, to not take thought for their lives, what they shall eat or drink ( just as God said He provides food and clothing for the stranger, now Israel had to trust in God the same way as the stranger.)
But what Jesus teaches was hard to many of the disciples hearing Him...
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
John 6:60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
Jesus reproves the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees, how they do matters of the law, but omit the important parts ( they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel and it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to hear these sayings of Jesus correctly)
What matters to God is His righteous judgments, mercy, and faith ( they are undone by Israel who do all to be seen of men)..
Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Israel remained stiffnecked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears.
Israel resisted the Holy Ghost, who never kept the law.
Jesus said to all the people of Israel, they were given the law yet none of them keep it, as they want to kill a man that told them the truth, unlike Abraham ( faithful/ a prophet of God with the Spirit of God)
Israel were the betrayers and murderers..
John 7:19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?
John 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
The message was preached to Israel as well as to everybody else.
The word did not profit Israel, as they had no faith to hear it.
Others now fear to come short of the promise of entering into Gods promises through faith.
Knowledge according to the righteousness of God was ignorant by peole establishing their own righteousness ( unbelief in the righteousness of God)
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Hebrews 4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Romans 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Believing in ( a circumcised heart) that God has raised Christ up from the dead, is believing in the righteousness of God, and with that heart man believes unto that righteousness, ( by not believing in a stiffnecked heart, as Israels example)...
Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 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.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Now remember that the disciples said the things Jesus spoke to them were hard to hear .
Remember Stephen ( through the Holy Ghost) tells Israel they are stiffnecked, and are uncircumcised in heart and ears.
That is why the disciples could not hear, through being uncircumcised in heart and ears and being stiffnecked.
Notice now, the workers of iniquity ( all who do not follow Jesus in faith) speak hard things, grievous things proudly against the righteous, and all these workers of iniquity ( without faith in Christ) boast themselves.
Also the soft answer is opposite to the hard grievous words of the proud ( stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears) who stir up wrath as they hate correction as they forsake the right way, and show they regard no reproof, being grievous revolters in corruption.....
Psalm 94:4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
Psalm 31:18 Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Proverbs 15:10 Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.
Jeremiah 6:28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
Matthew 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Many do not hear the message of faith, just the same as Israel never did, through being proud, boasters, stiffnecked, uncircumcised in heart and ears. Also through keeping the equivalent of a gnat, and trying to go through the eye of a needle with their camel of wealth and pride, ( which wont fit through into Gods Kingdom.)
Apostle Paul did many of those same uncircumcised methods of service, doing all that was contrary to the name of Christ.
Paul shows, just like Jesus spoke what was hard to the same faithless workers of iniquity, he also has many things to say to all others, but it is hard to be spoken to them as they are dull of hearing ( through being uncircumcised in heart and ears by being stiffnecked)
Paul also shows he obtained mercy from the Lord, as what he had done was ignorantly, and he became circumcised in the heart to hear the Lord.
The difference for all others is, they wrest the scriptures ( the same as Stephen told Israel had always resisted the Holy Ghost)
The words are hard to them ( the same as all they speak is hard, not soft words, not correctable and are corrupted)
The same workers of iniquity are faithless, are boasters, are proud, are stiffnecked, are unlearned of the Father and are unstable as they are racing towards their own destruction..
Acts 26:9 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Hebrews 5:11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
1 Timothy 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
2 Peter 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
1 Timothy 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
The Jews were described by God as a stiffnecked people. God made clear the land of Israel, was not given to them for their righteousness.
God then tells what is required of Israel after this, to fear the Lord, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve with all of their heart and all of their soul, which is for their own good.
To be able to do this with their whole heart and soul, ( to love God) it is told it is necessary to circumcise their heart, to be no more stiffnecked.
Deuteronomy 9:6 Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
God also shows He loves the strangers among Israel by giving them food and clothing..
Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
15 Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.
Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
Now the Messiah came to earth, and teaches how to not be stiffnecked, how to have the heart circumcised ( by believing in Him)
Jesus teaches faith, and to the same Israel tells them, to not take thought for their lives, what they shall eat or drink ( just as God said He provides food and clothing for the stranger, now Israel had to trust in God the same way as the stranger.)
But what Jesus teaches was hard to many of the disciples hearing Him...
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
John 6:60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
Jesus reproves the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees, how they do matters of the law, but omit the important parts ( they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel and it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to hear these sayings of Jesus correctly)
What matters to God is His righteous judgments, mercy, and faith ( they are undone by Israel who do all to be seen of men)..
Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Israel remained stiffnecked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears.
Israel resisted the Holy Ghost, who never kept the law.
Jesus said to all the people of Israel, they were given the law yet none of them keep it, as they want to kill a man that told them the truth, unlike Abraham ( faithful/ a prophet of God with the Spirit of God)
Israel were the betrayers and murderers..
John 7:19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?
John 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
The message was preached to Israel as well as to everybody else.
The word did not profit Israel, as they had no faith to hear it.
Others now fear to come short of the promise of entering into Gods promises through faith.
Knowledge according to the righteousness of God was ignorant by peole establishing their own righteousness ( unbelief in the righteousness of God)
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Hebrews 4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Romans 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Believing in ( a circumcised heart) that God has raised Christ up from the dead, is believing in the righteousness of God, and with that heart man believes unto that righteousness, ( by not believing in a stiffnecked heart, as Israels example)...
Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 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.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Now remember that the disciples said the things Jesus spoke to them were hard to hear .
Remember Stephen ( through the Holy Ghost) tells Israel they are stiffnecked, and are uncircumcised in heart and ears.
That is why the disciples could not hear, through being uncircumcised in heart and ears and being stiffnecked.
Notice now, the workers of iniquity ( all who do not follow Jesus in faith) speak hard things, grievous things proudly against the righteous, and all these workers of iniquity ( without faith in Christ) boast themselves.
Also the soft answer is opposite to the hard grievous words of the proud ( stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears) who stir up wrath as they hate correction as they forsake the right way, and show they regard no reproof, being grievous revolters in corruption.....
Psalm 94:4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
Psalm 31:18 Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Proverbs 15:10 Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.
Jeremiah 6:28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
Matthew 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Many do not hear the message of faith, just the same as Israel never did, through being proud, boasters, stiffnecked, uncircumcised in heart and ears. Also through keeping the equivalent of a gnat, and trying to go through the eye of a needle with their camel of wealth and pride, ( which wont fit through into Gods Kingdom.)
Apostle Paul did many of those same uncircumcised methods of service, doing all that was contrary to the name of Christ.
Paul shows, just like Jesus spoke what was hard to the same faithless workers of iniquity, he also has many things to say to all others, but it is hard to be spoken to them as they are dull of hearing ( through being uncircumcised in heart and ears by being stiffnecked)
Paul also shows he obtained mercy from the Lord, as what he had done was ignorantly, and he became circumcised in the heart to hear the Lord.
The difference for all others is, they wrest the scriptures ( the same as Stephen told Israel had always resisted the Holy Ghost)
The words are hard to them ( the same as all they speak is hard, not soft words, not correctable and are corrupted)
The same workers of iniquity are faithless, are boasters, are proud, are stiffnecked, are unlearned of the Father and are unstable as they are racing towards their own destruction..
Acts 26:9 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Hebrews 5:11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
1 Timothy 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
2 Peter 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
