Apostolos are made AS the filth of the world

“For I think that God has set forth us the apostolos last, as it were appointed unto death. For we are made a spectacle (Greek word, theatron, a place of public show) unto the world, and to messengers, and to people. We are fools for the Mashiach’s sake, but you are wise in the Mashiach. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place, and labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you, brethren, but as my beloved sons and daughters (full inheritance as kings and priests) I warn you. FOR THOUGH YOU HAVE TEN THOUSAND INSTRUCTORS IN THE MASHIACH, YET YOU HAVE NOT MANY FATHERS, FOR IN THE MASHIACH I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU THROUGH THE GOSPEL. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me as I follow the Mashiach.”  – 1 Cor 4

There are three words in this passage that our connected: spectacle…filth of the world… offscouring. The key to understanding the passage is the word “offscouring”. The Greek word for “offscouring” is peripsoma. This  is the only place in the New Testament this word is found, and it is not found in the LXX (Greek translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew) as far as I examined. This means there is no other witness to the word in the Greek as far as the Bible (Old and New Testament) is concerned. In this case I went to Adams Clark’s Commentary for a witness to this word in any passages in secular writings of the time. Here are his condensed comments on the passage starting at “We are as the filth of the earth, the offscouring of all things”: “The Greek word which we render filth is “perikatharmata”, literally meaning a purgation or sacrifice. That which we translate offscouring is “peripsoma”, a redemptive sacrifice. To understand the full force of these words, as applied by the apostle in this place, we must observe that he alludes to certain customs among the nations, who, in the time of some public calamity, chose out some unhappy men of the most abject and despicable character to be a public expiation for them. These they maintained for a whole year at the public expense. And then they led them out, crowned them with flowers, as was customary in sacrifices, and having heaped all the curses of the country upon them, and whipped them seven times, they burned them alive. Afterwards their ashes were thrown into the sea, while the people said the words, ‘peripsemaemon ginon’ or translated ‘be thou our propitiation’. Sometimes the person thus chosen would was thrown into the sea as a sacrifice to Neptune, the people saying the same words as before.”

In the Vine’s Expository Dictionary under the word offscouring these words are used to describe the meaning of the Greek word “peripsema” and its synonymous (like) word, “perikatharma”: “refuse, rubbish were used especially of condemned criminals of the lowest classes, who were sacrificed as expiatory offerings…because of their degraded life (Lightfoot)”

The point I am making is Paul was using words in this passage, ”spectacle…filth of the world… offscouring” which were words that would have made a tremendous impression on the hearers. These were words associated with ritual and calamity, the worst of criminals and human sacrifices. These were words of long standing customs of the nations (Gentiles). Read the book of Yonah and his casting into the sea. Read about the law of the scapegoat in the law of Moshah which took away human sacrifice from the pagan custom of sacrificing people. There is great reference (prophecy) to Yeshua, the fulfillment of the scriptures, in each of these passages in the Old Testament. The criminal who would be the scapegoat for the supposed sins of the people was crowned with flowers, which was a custom across much of human sacrifice throughout history Compare this to the judgment of our Savior, Yeshua ha Mashiach, and He not offered this mercy of a crown of flowers, but upon His head went the cruel mockery of a crown of thorns according to the purpose of God.

Yes, the apostolos are made as the filth of the world, the scapegoat for all in the flesh, but they are not the scapegoat in the Spirit, for the scapegoat of the Spirit is reserved for our blessed Savior, Yeshua ha Mashiach, who tasted death for all people. He is “the scapegoat”. The apostolos, as well as we,  at the most are partakers of the sufferings of the Mashiach, light afflictions compared to the glories that should follow. The glories that follow is living and abiding in the presence of God face to face for ever and ever, having conversation with our God, eye to eye forever and ever.

I mark this writing by the one true gospel. The one true gospel is the Mashiach, Yeshua of Nazareth, died for our sins according to the Old Testament, He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Tanach. (Luke 24, 1 Cor 15:1-6) Yeshua of Nazareth is the only Mashiach of God.

Christians quit having abortions!

I speak not to the unbelievers, but those who call themselves Christians. It is you, oh person, who calls yourself a Christian, that needs to stop having abortions. Do not try to change the laws of the land.

“Quit having abortions, people who call yourself Christian”, thus saith God.

“And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire…and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of Yehovah, to provoke Him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with the…nations…, and removed them out of His sight. There was none left…but a remnant.” – This is the word of the Lord to our generation. Whoever has ears to ear, let him hear, sayeth the Spirit.

There is no difference between those who offered their children on the altar of “gods who were no gods”, and abortions in our day and hour. Life begins at conception, o person, who calls yourself a Christian. Look at the Mashiach born of woman under the law. When would abortion be acceptable for the purpose of God in the Mashiach? It is so contrary to the Mashiach. Did not Herod seek to destroy all the male children two years and younger, and was not Yeshua delivered in the days of his flesh. How much more so in the womb! If you cannot see the truth that abortion is contrary to the Mashiach by the words I write, o person who calls yourself a Christian, you are barren of the grace of God. You have fallen from grace. There are no further words to write to you. A person can either see the truth or they cannot. This is the end of the matter in writing.

And speaking of this generation we live in, a generation of judgment. For the time of the nations (Gentiles) is fulfilled:

The falling away has already occurred.

The man of sin, the son of perdition is already revealed.

Fear God and give glory to Him. For the hour of His judgment is come. Worship Him that made heaven and the earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.

Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

If any has already worshipped the beast and his image and has already received a mark on their forehead, or on their head, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed undiluted in the cup of His wrath. And they shall be tormented in the presence of the holy messengers, and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up to the ages of the ages, and they have no rest day or night, who worshipped the beast and his image, and whosoever received the mark of his name.

The day of the Mashiach is at hand!

Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write! Blessed are the dead which die forth in the Lord from henceforth. Yes, sayeth the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow.

Except these days be shortened in this generation of judgment, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect’s sake these days shall be shortened. The words of Yeshua are true and sure in the generation of judgment. It is only by your grace, Abba Father, that any person will be saved, and with the shortening of days in the generation of judgment.

The time is at hand! Come Lord Yeshua! Maranatha! 

This letter is marked by the one true gospel. The one true gospel is the Mashiach, Yeshua of Nazareth, died for our sins according to the Old Testament, He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Tanach. (Luke 24, 1 Cor 15:1-6)

Wherever the gospel is preached, I rejoice!

The quote from the letter to the assembly at Phillipi, “wherever the gospel is preached, I rejoice”, is totally dependant on “what is the gospel that is preached?” If the one true gospel is not preached, I will not rejoice. The one true gospel without controversy in the grace of God is, the Mashiach died for our sins according to the Old Testament, He was buried and He was raised again the third day according to the Old Testament (Tanach). Yeshua of Nazareth is the only-begotten of the Father, the only Mashiach of God, and there is no other Mashiach. He is the lover of all people, for He as God in the flesh, He died for all people. He tasted death for all people. This gospel I know I preach is the gospel of Yeshua of Nazareth (Luke 24). It was imitated by all the apostolos, and has been preached in all generations. The gates of sheol will not prevail against the assembly of God. The assembly of God is marked by the preaching of the one true gospel. The one true gospel is the gospel of Paul (1 Cor 15:1-6). The one true gospel is the gospel Peter preached on Pentecost, for did he not preach the Mashiach’s death for our sins according to the Tanach, He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Old Testament, declaring the Mashiach to be Yeshua of Nazareth? Of course! The one true gospel is the gospel that James, Peter and John, who perceived the grace given to Paul gave their agreement to. And with the agreement of the three, the other apostolos’ agreement rest. The one true gospel is the testimony of Yeshua, and of Paul and Peter, and the other apostolos, their agreement rests with the one true gospel. The fact of the trueness of this one true gospel is confirmed by witnesses. It only takes two witnesses to confirm the fact. I have given you many. But the contentious will always be contentious, for they are of their father, the false accuser.

And so the statement, “wherever the gospel is preached, I rejoice” is true wherever the one true gospel is preached. There is no other gospel! For I agree with Paul, my brother in the grace of God, “I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of the Mashiach unto another gospel,  WHICH IS NOT ANOTHER. But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of the Mashiach. For though we or a messenger from heaven preach any other gospel unto you that that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Let the judgement of God fall upon him!” I know there is rejoicing in the place I abide and those with me that the one true gospel is preached.

Paul in the letter to the Philippians writes, “Some indeed preach the Mashiach even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. The one preach the Mashiach of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, in every way, whether in an outward show, or in truth, the Mashiach is preached. And I therein do rejoice, yes, and will rejoice…Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice.”  Most certainly in the grace of God I will continue to rejoice, that the gospel is preached in the place I abide. If I obtain knowledge about where the one true  gospel is preached in another place in our day and hour, I will rejoice. But I know of no other place where the gospel is accepted, for many have rejected the one true gospel in this present generation of judgment. The falling away has already occurred. I know that I do not preach the gospel in contention, but in love, for there are none to contend with. I do not contend with those who reject the one true gospel, but judge them haven fallen from grace, or never been partakers of the grace of God.

Partiality

Partiality should not be named among the saints of the most high God. This understanding is simple in the grace of God, but unobtainable apart from God’s grace. I agree with my brother James, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord, Yeshua ha Mashiach, the Lord of glory, with respect to persons.” (James 2:1) This is a verse that needs a better translation. I give you mine. “My brethren, there is no favoring of an individual in the faith of our Lord, Yeshua, the Mashiach of glory.” This immediately brings to my attention, 300 years of Christian slavery and 100 years of Christian Jim Crow.  The European slavery that was brought to this land is not the slavery the apostolos wrote about in the New Testament. The slavery they wrote about was “an institution of the world” that God was choosing believers from. Some who were chosen were masters, some slaves, some slaves had believing masters, some slaves had unbelieving masters, some believing masters had unbelieving slaves and some believing masters had some believing slaves. But this was not slavery initiated by those who call themselves Christians. Slavery was and is apart of the world. This is what European slavery and wherever and whatever nation practiced a like mannered slavery was about. This Christian slavery is most contrary to the Mashiach. In the faith of Yeshua there is no Christian slavery, just like there is no partiality. Can you not hear my words, oh, “dull of hearing” person. You are dull of the report. You are dull of the one true gospel. For your false prophets do not and cannot preach the one true gospel, for God has not given them grace. They say, “thus saith the Lord”, out of the their own breath!

And so if these things I speak of, slavery and partiality, is a stench in the nostrils of God, why will those who call themselves Christians, practice these things among each other. Brethren, just as the white race can be partial to whites, blacks can be partial to blacks. White to white, black to black, white to black, black to white, there are all manner of partiality. Do you not know what “fellowship one with another” means? There is no room for partiality in those words. Do you not know what “preferring one another” means? There is no room for partiality there. Partiality is hate. You despise your brethren whom the Mashiach died for. You despise God’s will in choosing them as He chose you. You despise God. Do not say you are partial toward your brethren and say you love God. You are a hypocrite and you deceive yourselves.

You also say, you love God and reject the one true gospel I know I preach and bore witness by the Lord Himself and His apostolos. For the one true gospel is the Mashiach, Yeshua of Nazareth, died for our sins according to the Old Testament (Tanach), He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Tanach. (Luke 24, 1 Cor 15) If you ignore this one true gospel, you reject the true grace of God, and you despise, and you are partial toward the world. If any person has the love of the world in him, he has not the love of the Father. You are most contrary to the Mashiach. This is anti-Mashiach. This is the spirit of anti-Christos!

Apostolos (the gifts) are appointed unto death!

“For I think that God has set forth us the apostolos last, as it were appointed unto death. For we are made a spectacle (Greek word, theatron, a place of public show) unto the world, and to messengers, and to people. We are fools for the Mashiach’s sake, but you are wise in the Mashiach. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place, and labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you, brethren, but as my beloved sons and daughters (full inheritance as kings and priests) I warn you. FOR THOUGH YOU HAVE TEN THOUSAND INSTRUCTORS IN THE MASHIACH, YET YOU HAVE NOT MANY FATHERS, FOR IN THE MASHIACH I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU THROUGH THE GOSPEL. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me as I follow the Mashiach.”  – 1 Cor 4

“Much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary, and those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to the part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of the Mashiach, and members in particular.” – 1 Cor 12 

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations (of the Mashiach in the scriptures in the prophets), there was given to me a thorn of the flesh, the messenger of the Satan (untranslated Hebrew word meaning adversary or enemy) to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me, and He said, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of the Mashiach (the one true gospel) may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for the Mashiach’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. For I become a fool in glorying. You have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you. For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostolos, though I be nothing. For what is it wherein you were inferior to other assemblies, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong. – 2 Cor 12

Great is the grace and knowledge of our God and Father and the Lord, (He is Lord of Lords) Yeshua the Mashiach. The ways of Yehovah Elohiym are past finding out. But to the children He has ordained these things to be known. )) Oh, that you might not forget, there is only one true gospel. “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance (of the one true gospel).” – 1 Peter 1.  The one true gospel is the Mashiach died for our sins according to the Old Testament, He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Tanach (the Tanach is the Old Testament). Yeshua of Nazareth is the Mashiach of God. Yeshua is the one and only begotten of the Father, the Creator of all  which were made for Him and by Him and through Him for the glory of God. Glory to God in the highest! God loves all people.

Let not your heart be troubled!

“Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many dwellings. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”- Yohan 14

And the place where Yeshua is, is with the Father, and the way to the Father is by the way of the one true gospel, which way you have walked if you continue in grace to the end. Continue! For they who endure to the end in grace shall be saved, for they continued to walk the way to the Father. And they shall dwell in His presence forever and ever face to face, conversing with their God and our God, Abba Father.  This is the full inheritance of the saints.

The Essence of Grace

How marvellous is the grace of God. It is God’s grace and His alone. No one but God possesses it, and only God can give it. No one can provoke God to give His grace, for He only gives it by His good pleasure. He gives it by His Spirit. And His Spirit goes where He sends it, and where it goes from the place He sent it to, no one knows. Do you not know that God is in control of His own Spirit. And His Spirit is one, and His Spirit, the Spirit of the Father, zealously only testifies of Yeshua, the only begotten of the Father, the Son of God, the Mashiach.

And thus, the Spirit of God visits a person at a time and a place. And according to His pleasure He gives a person grace at that time and place. This was decided by God before the creation of heaven and earth, before the person did any evil or good. And God’s decision came into fruition and His Spirit gave grace to the person, and the person is given the down payment of the inheritance, the very Spirit of God. And when grace is given at that moment, the one true gospel in its entirety is accepted. The one true gospel is the Mashiach died for our sins according to the Old Testament (Tanach), He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Tanach: Yeshua of Nazareth is the Mashiach. Every word of the one true gospel is accepted in the moment of grace. Yeshua of Nazareth, the Mashiach of God, died for our sins according to all the scriptures (Genesis through Malachi), He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the scriptures (Genesis through Malachi) is ACCEPTED. It is not reasoned. There is not evidence that demands a verdict, there is only God’s grace. And if there is none of God’s grace there can be no acceptance and there is only rejection of the one true gospel.  All the scriptures (Genesis through Malachi) testify of the great act of God 2000 years ago on a cross, through the grave (He tasted death for all people) and into the resurrection the third day. In the moment of grace all these things are accepted without controversy, without debate, without striving, without contention. Why is it, in this generation that we live in, that the gospel I preach is not accepted by them who call themselves Christians? For it has been preached these past 20 years with persecution and it has been rejected by those who call themselves Christians. This must be the generation of judgment. The falling away has occurred and the man of sin is revealed to the children of grace. The day of the Mashiach is at hand!

And in this essence of grace the love of God is revealed, that God loves all people of all generation of all nations of which I am one. Thus, God loves me and all people. You then need no person to teach you the love of God, if grace has been given to you by God, for God teaches you and by the one true gospel and by His grace that was given you to accept the one true gospel without reservation. 

All that I have written is the essence of grace that I can put words to. It is the accepting of the one true gospel and the pouring out of the love of God, shed abroad in the minds of those He has chosen according to His good pleasure.

My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.

In the flesh what we perceive as our weakness can be our great strength. A weakness perceived in the flesh is not of the Spirit. It is fleshly and carnal. This fleshly weakness can be a great source of pride, arrogance and hard-heartedness – a stronghold.  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Mashiach, and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” (2 Cor 10)

We can falsely judge our weakness and we perceive it as a weakness, but in truth, it is a  great strength in the flesh. We are deceived. We judge and condemn ourselves and thus, we judge others. Do you not know that God says, “And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” or “judge not lest you be judged?” If we cease judging ourselves, for God is our judge, we would not judge others.

Only God’s grace can deliver us in this and all things. “For by grace are you saved through the faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” (Eph 2)

Thank you, God the Father and your Son, Yeshua our Lord,  for saving us by grace. And by grace may we declare in Spirit and truth as Paul our brother in the one true gospel, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment, yes, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself, yet, am I not hereby justified? But He that judgeth me is the Lord.” (1 Cor 4) God has chosen us in the Mashiach before we had done any good or evil before the foundations of the world! As it is written, “Yacob I have loved; Esau I have hated.”

In the Spirit may we hear God say, “My grace is sufficient for My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor 12) We are weak in ourselves (in the flesh), but in God’s grace we are made strong in our weakness, and we judge not ourselves. And then we shall say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of the Mashiach may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for the Mashiach’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12) I have seen many sorrow over their weaknesses, and not take pleasure in them, and not rejoice. They who sorrow over their weaknesses have no understanding that God is their judge. God has not taught them; for He is their teacher. They judge themselves and thus, sorrow over their weaknesses.  When God has taught them, they will cease judging themselves, cease judging others, and will rejoice and have pleasure in their infirmities. Forget not my brethren that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The humble are those whom God is their judge.

http://habasar.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/god-resists-the-proud-but-give-grace-to-the-humble-repeat/

All understanding comes from the scriptures of the prophets (Old Testament or Tanach) by the one true gospel. The one true gospel is the Mashiach died for our sins according to the Tanach, He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Tanach. (Luke 24, 1 Cor 15:1-6) Yeshua of Nazareth is the Mashiach of God, the only begotten Son of the Father.