PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD IS THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS- PS.116:15

We are so loved by our God that our deaths, though planned this way by God from before the world was made, just as Jesus’ death was, are precious in His sight. Made mortal from the beginning in the hope that this would motivate us to seek for it’s solution and to “call upon His name”.

In all my messages one of my main goals is to help people to know that everything God does He does because of love. And how the doctrine of original sin teaches the exact opposite.

John tells us that God IS love. This love is His motivation for creating, and wanting, and making it possible for us to have a personal relationship with Him. This is why God said, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints". Ps.116:15

This is not just some touchy feely statement. It reveals God's heart and the plan that included death which is the reason He made Adam mortal.

So that by his God given free will man could choose to love God in return for His love. Or to reject Him. Knowing full well that either eternal life or eternal death hangs in the balance.

Man's wisdom makes excuses for a choice that otherwise would seem so stupid as to seem impossible that anyone would make it. But, God's wisdom expressed in the gospel message when it is preached brings men to see clearly that this is the choice that has been set before them.

The Bible makes it clear that man's wisdom always interferes with God's wisdom. This is why God tells us that man's ways are not His ways. Neither are our thoughts God's thoughts. And that we need to learn to think like God does to renew our minds so that  we can be sure that whatever happens we know that it is for our benefit.

There is a great example of this in the conversation we read between God and Cain in Gen.4. Man's wisdom can be seen in Cain's view that how God dealt with him showed severity. And many using man's wisdom also wrongly conclude that God showed severity toward Cain.

But, if we will objectively read Gen.4 we will see that what God actually did for Cain was for his benefit. It was to protect him that God placed a mark on him. A mark that would warn anyone who thought to do him harm of the severe consequences of doing so.

It is also by using man's wisdom that the man who has believed God showed severity to Cain misunderstands death. Because when we read what the Genesis account actually says, and couple this with what Paul said in Rom.5:12-14, we see that death is not a punishment for sin. Because here we see Paul teaching in Rom.5:13 that until the law was given through Moses sin was not imputed to anyone.

So, instead of punishment, Paul's teaching shows that mortality is the means God uses to bring mankind to a point of decision. And can not be a punishment for Adam's sin.

So using God's wisdom brings the realization that mortality, ie death, is the pathway for man to find life with God by his own free will. Through the personal relationship with God for which he was created. One that each man is given the opportunity to choose to receive when he hears the gospel that is based on love and trust. And without death, that is without men being able to realize his own mortality, man would still be a natural, not spiritual. Still in the garden and still unable to relate to God who is spiritual.

When reading Gen.3 we notice that when God sent Adam from the garden He did not say it was because he sinned. In Gen.3:22 God said it was because he had now become more like God knowing good and evil. And that now that he had this knowledge he would no longer to be allowed to eat from the tree of life. Because then he would continue to live forever without the possibility of choosing for himself to trust in God or not.

And this was the whole point. Because now that man was equipped with the knowledge of good and evil he was now ready to face his mortality equipped now to make the choice between eternal life and eternal death.

Adam was not newly mortal. But, was now the same mortality he was made in when God made him. But, a mortality he was unable to see until after he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Because in Gen.2:17 only after eating from the fruit of the tree and having this new knowledge did God say "surely you will die". Because only with this new knowledge would he realize he had always been mortal. And only then would he be equipped to seek for answers and the solution to it. To call upon the name of the Lord just as Gen.5:26 says men began to do. To seek after God for the answer to his mortality.

This was God's plan Peter says He made from before He made the worlds. That men would choose of their own free will to seek after Him. To call upon His name to receive eternal life by being born of God's Spirit. And to receive immortality by the resurrection.

Without this knowledge of good and evil men were not equipped to seek after God. Because he did not know he was mortal. He knew nothing about death or life. So to him there wasn't any such need to fill. He was made natural so that he could only relate to natural things.

So it was only when man would become spiritual that he would be able to relate to God spiritually. This is what Adam needed to truly know God. And death was the pathway to this eternal life and immortality. Because only spiritual can relate to spiritual. And as long as man remained in the garden he would remain only natural, flesh and blood. Mortal and not spiritual.

This is why in John4:24 Jesus said "God is a Spirit. And those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." So without the spiritual part being birthed in man as Jesus said we must, he would never have the kind of relationship with God that Jesus said is eternal life. The kind of relationship that happens between a father and his children.

A relationship that is built upon unconditional love. A love where God says I will by sending Jesus, even if you don't believe in Him. Rather than I will send Jesus only if you do believe. A love that can only be reciprocated between 2 spiritual beings.

A love that does not exist outside of the spirituality that comes for us only through the spirit birth Jesus describes in John3:1-8. And Peter describes in 1Peter1. And Paul describes in 1Cor.2:14-16.

So when Cain said to God that his punishment was more than he could bear. He was thinking according to man's wisdom. And not God's. Because when God dealt with Cain after he had killed his brother, what God did was a blessing, not severity. He did not curse him. God blessed him.

In fact, when we read the account of God's dealings with Cain in Gen.4 we see that God was longsuffering and showed great forbearance toward him just as Rom.2:4 says He does when leading men to repentance. Desiring for Cain to have a change of heart about whether he would trust in God as Abel did. Or trust in the flesh.

Man's wisdom says the opposite from what God's wisdom says. Saying like Cain that what is actually a blessing is really punishment. Not understanding what was said in Ez.18 that only under the law does the soul that sinneth die.

In God's wisdom we come to understand that the reason He would no longer allow Adam to eat from the tree of life and live forever was because he had become more like Him knowing good and evil. And now being equipped to face his mortality he would be sent from the garden and kept from the tree of life so that he would begin to die.

This is why death to and through Adam was not a penalty for sin. Rather, death that passed to all men as Rom.5:12 says was a necessary part of God's plan for man to become immortal and have eternal life to be able to live with God in His kingdom forever. Because it was through death man would seek a relationship with the Creator that made him.

Because only by men coming to grips with their mortality would they begin to seek for a solution. And in seeking for that solution it was God's intent that they would seek after and come into a loving relationship with Him. The one who alone possesses eternal life and immortality. And wants to give them to all who will trust in Him.

If Adam had remained in the garden he could never have known God for eternal life and immortality. He would have remained natural and not spiritual just as Paul said he was made in 1Cor.15:45,46. He would have remained mortal and in need of continually eating from the tree of life to keep on living.

But, since he began to realize his mortality man has called upon the Lord for deliverance from it. And when he comes to know Jesus he no longer needs to eat from that tree in the garden to live forever. Because as John17:3 tells us his eternal life now comes through his trusting in and knowing his Creator, Jesus Christ.

Of corse, not all men would come to this saving faith in Jesus. Not even most men. But, this is not because it was not God's plan for all men to call upon His name. It happens this way because men have the free will to choose either life or death. And as crazy as it sounds to us who are saved, most men knowingly choose death.

This is what Joshua, a type of Christ, called upon Israel to do in Joshua24:14,15. He said, "14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Does this sound like the god of Calvinism or the god of his mentor Augustine who says men have no free will? So that the reason only a few men go to heaven is because he made them for heaven. And that the reason most men go to hell is because he made them for hell.

It is through this perversion of the truth they have changed the meaning of the events in the garden. Putting Adam under the law by perverting what Paul taught in Rom.5:12-14 so that his sin was imputed. And by doing so making death his a punishment for sin. Rather than a blessing after having become more like God by receiving the knowledge of good and evil

Peter says that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Jesus said, "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.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John3:16,17

Now this sounds like the God that Joshua believed in and preached. This sounds like the God who Abraham believed in and preached. Our Creator who Heb.2:14 says joined with all mankind in our death. So that all mankind could join with Him in His life. By faith without works in Him and His resurrection.

Without works so that no man could boast. But, also without works so that we would always stay focused solely on our relationship with Jesus. And it's profound affect on our relationships with others.

Rather than on works. Always trying to reach a lost and dying world with God's message of love for His creation.

Not preaching a message of condemnation and works as those who put themselves under the law. And as those who have believed Augustine's pagan gnostic dogmas. But, one of liberty that is in Christ Jesus. A liberty available only to those who have chosen to trust in Jesus apart from works.

This is why Jesus said "He who the Son sets free is free indeed". And why Paul after explaining the death and condemnation that comes through the law wrote in 2Cor.12-18,

"Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Will you have this freedom? Will you have this liberty that is in Christ Jesus? If you will trust in Him and His resurrection this liberty will be yours. If you will confess Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that He is raised from the dead. Forsaking any benefit you previously understood to come through law keeping. You will have this liberty.

If not then you will remain blinded by the vail Paul said remains over the mind that trusts in works righteousness. When Paul says "the vail is taken away" when a man's heart turns to the Lord, he is expounding upon what he said in Rom.7:1-4. That to be joined with Christ they must be dead to the law. Dead to their former husband before they can be joined to another.

Some argue that Paul was speaking of a different law than that which Moses gave to Israel. But, Paul rejects that misunderstanding when he cites the 10th commandment in Rom.7:7. Making it plain that he is indeed saying that being dead to the law includes  being dead to the 10 commandment law given through Moses before they can be joined with Jesus.

The liberty that is in Christ that one has when they believe and are dead to the law is not a license to behave badly. It is the freedom from sin's power that it derives from the law to serve and love Jesus with all of the heart, mind, and strength. No longer bound by the law to be shut up unto the faith.

So if you have believed in Jesus but are still bound to the law. And are a most miserable wretch because you want to believe in Jesus for righteousness. But, haven't been able to because you are not yet free from the belief in law keeping for righteousness. Understand that this is the conundrum Paul speaks of in Rom.7:15-17 when he says, "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

The sin he is speaking about here is the idolatry of the law.

The inability for the man who has the law ingrained in his flesh to simply trust in Jesus without works for eternal life.

He wants to trust in Jesus without works for eternal life. But, his mind tells him that this is impossible because works are required for righteousness. This is the "sin that dwells in me" Paul speaks of here. The woman whose husband(the law/works) is still alive while she is joined to another(faith).

This man is "wretched" because he is torn between works and grace. He wants to believe for righteousness. But, what has been ingrained in his flesh since birth keeps reminding him that he needs to keep the law for righteousness so that he can't.

But, Paul gives them the solution to this problem in Rom.8:1,2. He says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh(works). But after the spirit(grace). Because the law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus(grace) has set me free from the law of sin and death(works)".

So if you will be dead to the law receive the liberty in Christ Jesus now and be saved. Delivered. Delivered from the law of sin and death as Rom.7:7 says. Into a new and eternal life that is in Christ Jesus by faith without works. No longer leaning on the wisdom of the flesh. But, trusting in and clinging to God Himself and His wisdom for eternal life. Led by the Spirit of God as Rom.8:14 says all sons of God are. And not by the law.

For those who have decided to believe in Jesus for eternal life and immortality, leaving your mortal body behind which is death, is precious in God's sight. Not so much because He feels deeply for your suffering. Though He does. But, predominately because He knows that because you have chosen to trust in Him the death men go through has no sting. And because God knows the wonderful life that awaits believers.

And because your last breath on earth will be followed immediately by your first breath in heaven. Because the sting of death is sin. And sin's strength is the law. And we who have believed in Jesus are not under the law but under grace.

If you will be dead to the law given through Moses then you will have eternal life. If you will reject Man's wisdom you will have the immortality that Jesus conquered death to give you. If you will do this then you will be a child of God and heir to His kingdom. If you will do this... then I will see you there or in the air! This message can also be heard at: https://rumble.com/v2innqu-precious-in-the-sight-of-the-lord-is-the-death-of-his-saints-ps.11615.html