Getting Close to God

 A Better Relationship

Book of Hebrews Chapter 3

A relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest relationship we can have!

A good relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ means you have a better relationship with God!

As human beings we have the tendency worship the things of this world.

It seems we are always seeking something to worship and not God.

To worship is to reverence something or someone that is most important to you!

We also have the tendency to recognize some humans far too much, and in fact it could be said that some humans worship other humans.

We are wrong to even consider such a thing!

In some churches, it seems the Pastor is worshipped more than the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a terrible sin!

In some denominations the church leader is allowed to carry the same weight as the Word of God such as the Pope, but there are others and God wrote down the things, we need to know is this life.

This is a terrible sin!

To the Jews, Moses and Abraham are worshipped as much as God is worshipped, and even some of the Old Testament prophets ranked higher than the Lord Jesus Christ.

We had better understand that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who brings to us the message of God for salvation!

We had better understand that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who did the work that was necessary for our salvation.

We had better understand that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Author of our Salvation.

We had also better understand it is the Lord Jesus Christ who pleads our case to God.

He does all these things and more, because He is the One and only Mediator between God and man!

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is God!

*****Heb 3:1  Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; 

“Wherefore”, all the things that that we learned in Chapter 1 and then Chapter 2 have brought us to the truth of Chapter 3.

**The Lord Jesus Christ is the true Messenger of God!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Supreme Apostle of God according to this writer and according to all the Bible.

An Apostle takes care of the business of God. 

Our Heavenly Father is in “the sinner saving business”!

Under the Old Covenant of the law, Moses held the office of an apostle, as God's ambassador to the Jewish people and those strangers that joined with them.

It was Aaron that held the office of High Priest as man's representative before God.

Under the "Covenant of Grace" the Lord Jesus Christ holds both offices!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Apostle, the Messenger of God, and the Ambassador of God, while being our High Priest.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who possesses all the authority and power of God’s Kingdom, and He represents God’s Kingdom perfectly because He is Perfect!

We should understand that God’s Kingdom is not of this earth.

The Lord Jesus is speaking to us of a much better place

As God's High Priest, the Lord Jesus is greater than any high priest that has gone before Him!

**He is the Highest of High Priest to all believers.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who bears the name of God before all mankind!

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who knows mankind and knows God!

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is able to represent God before man and man before God and He is the only One who can do this!

This Book we call the Bible, the Word of God, leaves us with no doubt that both these things are true.

Heb 5:10  Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedec. 

Heb 7:26  For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 

Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God “for us”:

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who builds a bridge between God and man!

It is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that built a new bridge for us to get to Heaven, but it is a narrow path.

What is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? 

It is that man can know God and can come to be face to face with God!

Remember the Lord Jesus is building us a mansion “in His Father’s House”!

It is the work of Lord Jesus Christ that has caused all these things to be true!

These things are true because the Lord Jesus is also the Supreme High Priest!

Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 

Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,” who also maketh intercession for us”.

It is just a matter of time, and Our Lord Jesus will also hold the office of King of kings and Lord of lords.

What proof do we have?

First Our true Prophet

Deu 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

This was Moses speaking the truth to the children of Israel

Next Our High Priest:

1Sa 2:35  And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever. 

And next our King:

2Sa 7:13  He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 

Heb 9:11  But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 

Heb 9:12  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 

Psa 95:3  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 

We must know the complete truth of the Lord Jesus Christ!

We must fix our eyes upon Jesus.

We must fix our thoughts upon Jesus.

We must fix our minds upon Jesus.

We must fix our attention upon Jesus.

We must grasp the Lord Jesus Christ and attach to Him and never let go!

We must pursue a perfect relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ till the day He comes to take us to the home that He has prepared for us.

As believers, these things must have real meaning because we must be sanctified, set apart for our God!

We must confess that it is the Lord Jesus Christ whom God sent to save us and because He is the Perfect High Priest, He is able to do so!

He has shown us what God is like.

He has told us the truth of God, of ourselves, and of this world.

He has all the power of God, and it is Our Savior who is in absolute control of this world.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is faithful to fulfill the things of God for us!

*****Heb 3:2  Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. 

What was the house of Moses? We could say it was the Church of Israel that gathered in the Tabernacle and later the Temple.

Moses was as faithful as any human could be to God.

We also know that we need the faith of Abraham to get to Heaven!

Gal_3:9  So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Gal_3:14  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Yes, Moses was faithful, but we need the faith of Abraham to obtain righteousness

Rom_4:13  For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Gal_3:6  Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Abraham believed God so it is in our best interest to believe all the Word of God, not just Moses and the laws called the Law of Moses.

The Lord Jesus Christ is even more faithful because He has perfect faithfulness!

Moses was faithful to his calling.

Moses was a great freedom leader.

Moses was the great Lawgiver.

Moses was a great nation builder.

Moses was a great friend of God in the eyes of the Jews.

The Jews thought that Moses was the only man who had met with God face to face, but with "Grace" we will all come face to face with our Redeemer.

Moses had been appointed by God to do some great things and He was faithful to do them.

Num 12:6  And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. 

Num 12:7  My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. 

Num 12:8  With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 

To the Hebrew speaking Jews there was no one as great as Moses.

You see here is the trap that many Church members find themselves in today.

They put some man on a pedestal making them equal with God.

Maybe Moses was superior to all men in his day.

Even God bragged upon Moses.

The Lord Jesus Christ is also called of God and called to do greater things than Moses.

The Lord Jesus has shown us by example exactly what God is like and how we can become acceptable to Him.

No doubt that Moses was a faithful man, but he was just a man and not the Godman, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, “to make reconciliation for the sins of the people”. 

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who was faithful to proclaim God's salvation plan!

And it is only the Lord Jesus Christ who can make reconciliation for us to God the Father!

*****Heb 3:3  For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. 

Moses caused the Tabernacle in the wilderness to be built, but he had the plans from God to guide Him.

Today every Christian is a house of God!

Also, a design of God, but the work is done by the Lord Jesus Christ!

Eph_2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

What is the human? Our bodies are a finely tuned built machine.

We are resourceful.

We can adapt for many uses.

We have a mind of surprising capacities.

We have perception and can reason.

We have memory and a conscience.

We can have hope and we can trust.

We can know love.

We can reverence.

There is no inventor that has ever been able to surpass God's creation of the human being!

There is no builder who can build as does the Lord Jesus Christ!

Above all, we all have a spirit that links us to God and we are able to be created anew in Jesus Christ.

Joh_3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Joh_3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

1Co_6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Jesus Christ is the builder of my house, and He can build your house to!

We must understand that He (the Lord Jesus Christ) has equipped us and established us for His purpose.

If we reject the purpose that the Lord has given to us, we become useless, and the Lord will destroy our house!

1Co_3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

It is easy to see that He who has built our house is far greater than the house as magnificent as it is!

*****Heb 3:4  For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. 

Who is our Creator? Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 

It is this Son of God who is our God!

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 

The Son of God is the Lord Jesus Christ!

1Jn_5:20  And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

We cannot miss these things if we study the Word of God!

The Lord Jesus has built the house of this entire Universe and He has built my house which is now His house!

The Lord Jesus is the Son of God, who is God, and He is as much God as our Heavenly Father and God the Holy Spirit!

He possesses the very nature of God because He is God!

Christ Jesus made the house. He laid the foundations of our Universe, and He is the House of all God's people.

You know the Lord has to live within me, before I can live within Him!

Moses may have been the greatest man who ever lived to the Jews, but the message of the Book of Hebrews is that the Lord Jesus Christ is far greater than Moses!

In fact, this is the message of all the Word of God!

In fact, no matter what person is alive today, or from the past, or may be in our future, they will never surpass the Lord Jesus Christ in greatness!

We can only be residents of this universe, but the Lord Jesus is God the builder of our universe!

Eph 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 

Eph 3:11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 

Eph 3:12  In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. 

Moses nor any other human being can possibly reach the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ!

*****Heb 3:5  And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 

To speak of Moses to the Jews is difficult and delicate thing to do. 

It is hard for the Gentiles to understand just how much the Jews regard Moses.

They see Moses as a man who dedicated his entire life to the obedience of the God of his father’s Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (who would be Israel).

All God's dealings with Israel were transacted through Moses until he died.

To the Jews, Moses was the Mediator of the Covenant with God.

He brought Israel out of Egypt.

He led them through the Red Sea.

He gave then the Moral Law the Ten Commandments and in fact gave them 613 laws.

It was by Moses that the national life of Israel was organized!

Moses could not go into the Promised Land because Moses was not a perfect man!

Moses was much inferior to Christ Jesus as Moses was just a "servant" to God.

Moses was much inferior to Christ Jesus in respect to his work, as Moses prophesied of a greater revelation to come, which was the Messiah.

Moses was servant to the house of God.

*****Heb 3:6  But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is servant of His own House, the House of God, the Church.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the also the Apostle and High Priest of our profession and who has now been seen to be much greater than Moses.

Christianity is the completed “House of God” on earth over which Christ Jesus reigns as the Son of God!

To be called to Christ is a much higher calling than to have been called to Moses.

Jesus Christ, God's Son, is Son over God's House and Moses was only a servant to God's House!

Moses was called to be a servant to proclaim these things to come sometime in the future as many they now have come.

Moses was to predict and show by example, in symbols and typology, what the Savior of the world would be like and what He was to do when He came into the world.

When God gave Moses messages to deliver, Moses struggled for He did not always understand that message nor those symbols, and God did not explain these things to Moses for it was not yet time. 

Remember verse one and two in Chapter 1.

Heb 1:1  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 

Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 

Moses may have been the greatest servant of God to have ever lived, but he was only a servant!

Moses was a created man, working in a created world, and the Lord Jesus Christ is our Maker and the Creator of all things. Again Chapter 1 Verse 2.

The Lord Jesus Christ is building God's House with "believers".

Believers are not those with only head knowledge!

Believers are those who believe everything the Bible says about the Son of God who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

You cannot pick and choose what you will believe about the Lord Jesus.

The entire Bible centers on the prophecy and the fulfillment of that prophecy of all things about the Lord Jesus Christ!

How do we become believers? "If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm in Jesus Christ until the end which means the day the Lord Jesus returns to take us home".

Our confidence comes by our hope in the salvation given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ!

We must believe the promises of God!

We should walk in the glory of the Lord, no matter our circumstances!

We must stay focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ!

When we attend the House of God to worship, then we need to worship, nothing else in the House of God has this importance.

We are going to the House of God to hear the message God has for us on that particular day, we need to pay attention.

When we do not go, we miss that message and the importance of it!

Jesus Christ is far greater than Moses and Moses truly was one of the greatest men who ever lived in our world!

If we cannot cling to the hope in the salvation provided by the Lord, we cannot be saved, and we will never enter into the House of God in Heaven, the house that Jesus has prepared for us!

2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. 

2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 

What should we rejoice the most about in this world?

Luke 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. 

We should rejoice that our names are known in Heaven.

God knows us my name!

Make sure He knows your name and writes your name down in the Lamb's Book of Life!

We must travel the narrow path of Jesus and not the path of Moses!

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 

Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 

We can have a better relationship with our God only because we have a relationship with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Amen

Salvation Comes By the Lord Jesus Christ

A Better Testimony

Book of Hebrews Chapter 2

We must clearly understand that the Lord Jesus Christ has a better testimony than Moses and all the Old Testament prophets and all the Laws of Moses.

What is a testimony? In short terms, a testimony is witnessing to others of what the Lord has done for us.

The Church in Rome had a great testimony.

Rom 1:8  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 

Our testimony should always describe our faith.

2Co 4:13  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; 

Our testimony is telling the world of our hope in Jesus Christ and the promises of God.

1Pe 3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 

1Pe 3:16  Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 

Our testimony should describe our hope in the promises of God!

Our testimony begins as we walk wisely before those who are lost.

Col 4:5  Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. 

Col 4:6  Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. 

Why can we redeem the time? Because we know we will spend eternity with the Lord in the New Heaven and go where He goes.

We can have a testimony because the Bible is a testimony of the sovereign will of God through Jesus Christ!

Psa 119:1  ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. 

Psa 119:2  Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. 

Psa 119:3  They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. 

We can only have a good testimony when we are approved of God.

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Our testimony begins by giving heed to the Word of God.

*****Heb 2:1  Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 

It is important that we remember what the Lord has done for us, and a testimony is a way of remembering.

We may not want to admit it, but there is always the danger drifting away from our salvation and when we allow this happen our testimony becomes useless to those who are watching.

We can be sure that if we claim to be a Christian then there will be someone watching everything we do!

"We must give more earnest heed to the things we have heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" and what He has done for us!

That word "heed" means pay attention to.

The greatest enemy of a testimony is the backsliding, Christian!

We must listen to the Word of God.

We must listen carefully to the Word of God.

We must pay attention to what the Word of God says!

It does not matter how long we have claimed to be a Christian there is no time that we should not be studying the Word of God.

A splendid example would be the Apostle Paul.

Even when he knew his head was about to be taken, he wanted to study the Scriptures.

2Ti 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 

2Ti 4:8  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 

2Ti 4:9  Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: 

2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. 

2Ti 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. 

2Ti 4:12  And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. 

2Ti 4:13  The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, "but especially the parchments". 

Those parchments were a copy of the written Word of God preserved down through the history of Israel.

Those parchments were a copy of the Old Testament.

Paul himself had written much of the New Testament.

We should understand that we have the express Word of God.

We may speak to Him in our prayers, and we may witness Him in action, but we have the complete Word of God to the Church and His Word is not going to change and it cannot be modernized as some think.

God says what He means, and God means what He says!

We cannot allow ourselves to drift away from God and it seems that this period of the Covid 19 plague there has been a great falling away from the truth of the Gospel.

Shame on us when we allow some Atheist to tell us we cannot worship God and then we allow it to happen.

There are some Christians in certain places that have to hide their worship but even tyrant governments do not stop them from their worship of our Savior.

*****Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 

Heb 2:3  How shall we escape, "if we neglect so great salvation"; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

That "Word" spoken by angels" refers us to the Law of God that was given to Moses.

Seventeen times Moses wrote the phrase "the angel of the Lord".

Some examples are:

Gen_22:11  And the "angel of the LORD" called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

Gen_22:15  And the "angel of the LORD" called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

Exo_3:2  And the "angel of the LORD" appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

If you believe in Theophanies then you will accept that sometimes this Angel of the Lord is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The very first reason we must not slip away from this salvation given to us by the Grace of God and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is that we will face the "Judgment of God".

We know that the "Judgment of God under those old laws was strict. 

Every transgression and every disobedience "had its own punishment".

Every failure to keep those old laws of God brought "judgment", brought "condemnation" and brought that "punishment" that was laid out by that law.

Transgression means to go against what the Law said and to have done what the Law forbids.

Disobedience means to neglect, to refuse, to fail in obedience to the Law of God.

To deliberately reject the Law of Grace in the New Testament is even worse than breaking the laws of Moses.

To reject the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be sentenced to death and this punishment cannot be changed!

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

There is no escape!

*****Heb 2:3  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? 

We may not think about it but "Judgment" under salvation and God's Grace will be much more severe than "Judgment" under the Law of Moses! 

We might ask why?

1) We look around every day and we can see just how wicked and evil  our nation and our world has become and in reality, we can just see a small portion of its true wickedness because most evil is hidden from the population.

If we could see all the wickedness, we would be more apt to do something about it.

No one has said that Satan is stupid!

This Salvation is the deliverance from all evil.

This Salvation delivers us to God.

This Salvation gives us a New Heaven and a New Earth.

This Salvation is rewards heaped upon rewards.

This Salvation gives us a Savior, Jesus Christ the Son of God.

2) Because there is such a great salvation then, there can be no escape from the "Judgment of God".

God did not use angels to bring salvation, salvation was given by the Lord Himself, His work on the cross paid for our salvation.

The Sovereign Lord and Majesty of all creation is the person who brought salvation to us!

All those who ignore this salvation are ignoring the true Messiah!

They show their hatred for the Messiah.

They do not think the Messiah is worth a commitment.

They deny Him.

They reject Him. 

They curse Him.

Since God gave His Son for this amazing salvation, how do we expect God to feel when we reject His salvation plan?

There will be no escaping the "Judgment of God"!

3) There will be no escaping the "Judgment of God" because there have been so many witnesses to this great salvation the Lord Jesus Christ being the first when He arose from the dead.

If we just look at the changed lives in our own church, we could see far too many witnesses of the salvation of Christ to say it does not exist.

Not only all the people who have been saved but the Lord Jesus Christ was the second witness as God the Father Himself was the first witness.

Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 

Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 

Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 

There are far too many supernatural events that could not have taken place without the truth of God!

The things that God does exceed any natural power that we know of to produce it!

If you believe our world will collapse when the world thermometer goes up two more degrees, then you are a fool. 

There are so many miracles that happen today that just go on without us realizing that they are true miracles of God and not some accident.

We must also realize that God allows some signs and wonders by false Christ and false prophets

Mat_24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

The more we understand our God, the more we will understand this great salvation He has provided!

The more we trust in the salvation given to us by the "Grace" of God, the better servants we will become.

Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 

Remember Grace is "God's Riches At Christ's Expense"

*****Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

The salvation that was provided by the Lord Jesus Christ is our only chance of fulfilling the purpose that God has for each of us!

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 

God's plan of salvation is the most wonderful thing of all His creation!

God's plan of salvation offers each of us the only hope we could have in fulfilling our purpose.

Our purpose has never been to do as we wish to do.

Our purpose has always been to serve our Holy God and do as He says for us to do!

Since the fall of Adam we have been enslaved with evil and we live in a corrupted and dying world!

These things are easily seen if we would just take a serious look at our world.

All the technology and improvements that have been made have not helped our outlook to the future one bit, in fact, things are even much worse as wickedness has taken charge of the modern world.

Since angels cannot die, they are like our soul which cannot die, the Lord Jesus had to be made in the image of a human and was made as a man that can die and not a woman because God is masculine in His character.

Now, we as humans have hope to escape this sinful dying world by escaping death, the death of being eternally separated from the Living God!

Now we can look toward the Lord Jesus Christ our Creator as our Savior and Redeemer because He is our Savior and our Redeemer.

The Lord Jesus Christ wears Heaven's crown and wears Heaven's glory and has Heaven's honor, because these things were given to Him by our Heavenly Father.

Our God had to come to this earth, His creation, in order to die for our sins!

That word "taste" means earth was the only place He could experience this death!

Before this death to have a meaning in Heaven, then He had to live as a perfect man before God in that body of flesh!

This death would free man from ever having to die according to the curse of God.

When Christ arose from this death, He assured us that we could arise and live eternally before God.

When Christ was then exalted in Heaven for His accomplishment, it made it possible for every believer to be exalted into Heaven, to rise above the angels, and rule and reign over God's created universe.

Because the Lord Jesus died, God has crowned Him with "Glory and Honor" above all others.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the right hand of power over all His creation!

Isa 43:10  Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who had the power to restore us to the glory we once had before the fall of Adam.

The Lord Jesus Christ who came to this earth to show us the character of the Living God!

*****Heb 2:10  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 

God wants us all to know, His Glory, His Majesty, and His Dominion, but he also wants us to know His love, His mercy, His grace, and His kindness.

Again it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has allowed every believer to fulfill his own destiny!

This is why we can say:

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

When God is ready for us, the believers, to depart from this world, it is because of the work of Jesus Christ that we have become righteous and acceptable to Him!

Then quicker than the blink of an eyelid God takes us into His home in Heaven where the Lord Jesus has already prepared us a place.

We should know that there will be no empty mansions in Heaven.

Each a child of God will occupy one, and they will never be sold.

This is the lesson God tried to teach the Jews that their land would always be their land.

The Promised Land, Heaven, is exactly that, a Heavenly possession promised to each of God's children.

We will then know God face to face, and He will show us the riches and glory of His "grace" and "kindness" which are the true character of God.

Mat 13:43  Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

This is not the side of God that the unbeliever will see!

Mat 13:41  The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 

Mat 13:42  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

As a believer I will live before God in glory, praise, and worship and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, my Creator, ruling and reigning with Him forever in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

I am looking forward to this as we all should, but it comes only by the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Mat 25:23  His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

The Lord Jesus Christ became the Captain of our salvation through His suffering!

When I was in the war in Vietnam, we would decide who would walk point as we traveled. 

It was not the safest or the most desired place and I did it myself most of the time because I was the leader, and I believed a leader should not ask others to do what he would not do.

You see it is the Captain of our salvation who walked point because we could not do it and He rejoiced while He leads us into the Promised Land of Heaven.

It was the Lord Jesus Christ who bore my guilt and my punishment on that Cross on Mount Calvary!

For those who think they can be saved and still live as they always have, Christ came to sanctify us which means to be set apart for God and not set apart for ourselves!

And we are sons and daughters because of our adoption into the family of God!

Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 

Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 

Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 

If you are a son or a daughter of God, it will show in your lifestyle and for those who do not know what sex they are, then they cannot be a child of God without repenting of the way they think and think the way the Lord says to think.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who shared the truth with us, and we are to accept His truth!

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 

Rom 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Heb 2:11  For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 

Heb 2:12  Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 

*****Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 

Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 

The Lord Jesus could not have accomplished these things by coming as an angel which He may have on occasion in the Old Testament.

In order for God to bring salvation to all humans, He had to be human!

We must understand that God is Spirit. "God is not "a spirit"!

God does not have a physical form!

Joh 4:24  God a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. 

A body would localize God when God is actually everywhere!

God may not have a body, but He is substance, but not material substance as we would think of.

He may not have a body, but He is still the source of all life!

There is no such thing as people evolving from anything.

People have been people since their creation!

All the animals have been what they are all their days!

Any likeness of God is therefore an idol because no one knows the likeness of God.

God the Father has life in Himself and it this trait that the Holy Spirit placed inside the womb of the Virgin Mary and God came to life as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isa 7:14  Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 

God gave each of us life in a comparable way, but God made Himself a body in our likeness, but we are not in His likeness and will never be Spirit as He is Spirit.

The Lord Jesus Christ can be our Deliverer because He willingly became a man (flesh and blood).

100% Flesh and blood while still being 100% Spirit.

The Lord Jesus Christ also went back to Heaven in that body, and He will meet us in that body when we get to where He is at.

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

Isa 9:7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. 

Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 

We might ask ourselves why?

*****Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 

The Lord Jesus could deliver us only because He became like us, so He could die, at least that body of flesh and blood because He is Spirit, He could not die.

That title "Immanuel" meant "God with us".

God became all things that pertain to "human nature" just He could suffer the same temptations we face which come by Satan and He had to be the perfect man.

We should understand what God told Adam!

Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

We die spiritually because of sin.

Sin and death have to be taken care of and removed!

If these things can be removed, then we can live forever!

None of us ever had the strength to do this alone and this is why we need the Lord Jesus Christ to do this for us.

Without Emmanuel we would suffer sin and death.

The Lord Jesus Christ had to become the perfect man by going through the same temptations as do we all, but He could not fail.

God identifies with all those who:

Are righteous being righteous in Christ.

As having already died in Christ Jesus.

As being already resurrected to eternal life in Christ.

When we get to Heaven, by Rapture or by the death of this flesh, God the father will say, "I have been expecting you", "you are finally home".

Just like the parable of the "Prodigal Son".

Joh 3:16  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. 

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 

Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

*****Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Our Lord Jesus Christ destroyed the last power that Satan holds over God's creatures.

Satan the Devil was the first sinner, and he is the Tempter.

Satan continues to hurt God in any way he can and leading God's created beings to eternal death cause God the greatest hurt!

Sin is going against the Word of God!

God gave us a copy of His Word so we would have no doubt what He has said about sin and about His Son!

Sin is doing our own thing without God!

If we do without God in this life, we will certainly do without God in the next life!

Mat 10:28  And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 

Do you want to know the real truth?

It is better to never been born than to be born and enter death as a sinner and have to face the "Judgment" that is to come but Heaven is such a wonderful place that it is better to be born and suffer through temptation and have that victory that comes through the Lord Jesus Christ than to not have been born at all!

The Lord Jesus Christ has delivered us from this fear of death!

1Co 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 

1Co 15:56  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 

1Co 15:57  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 

The Lord Jesus Christ completed the work that was required for our salvation and is now our Great High Priest.

1Jn 2:1  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

All those who do not make it to Heaven can blame no one but themselves because they have refused to listen to the only One who could have saved them!

We can trust the Lord Jesus Christ

Joh 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 

Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 

Amen

Jesus Christ Must Not Be Rejected

 A Better Message

Book of Hebrews Chapter 1

Notice how this epistle to the Hebrews begins without a greeting from an author, or an address to the Church, or even words of introduction.

All other books of the New Testament contain these things.

We do not know who the author was for certain, but most all the Church agrees that the author was the Apostle Paul though this is not certain.

By the words that are said, we can determine that those Hebrews this epistle is written to, would certainly have known this author.

Even though this great Book of the Bible was written to these Hebrews, we know that all the Word of God was written to the Church.

This audience according to the author, would be those Hebrew speaking Jews as distinguished from those who spoke Greek.

It is very possible that the Book of Hebrews was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD simply because this destruction it is not mentioned.

1) The purpose of this terrific book was to show these Hebrews that much of the fulfilling of the Old Covenant is fulfilled with this New Covenant of Jesus Christ!

2) Another purpose of the Book of Hebrews was to invite these Jews to join the Church. It is Judaism that will convert to Christianity and not the revers.

2) Another purpose of the Book of Hebrews was to warn these Jews of the consequences of neglecting the salvation of Jesus Christ.

This is the same message that we are to carry to the world.

This is why the Book of Hebrews begins as it does:

*****Heb 1:1  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 

Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 

We should understand that most of these Jews have always looked upon the prophets of God as great men with the message of God.

Another thing we should consider is, that humanity has always felt an inner drive to live forever in a perfect world and we know from history this world we live in is far from perfect, and there has been no perfect place in all this world after God shut down the Garden of Eden to humans.

This is behind much of the money that is spent in an attempt to find such a world somewhere in outer space which will also never happen.

There is a place, and it is called Heaven but you cannot get there in a spaceship.

You can only get to Heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Bible teaches us where to look for this perfect world and it also shows us how to get there.

Joh 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 

Joh 14:2  In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

Joh 14:3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 

Joh 14:4  And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 

These words of the Lord Jesus Christ tell us the truth of this perfect world, and it is only by Jesus Christ that we can get there.

Most of this world which is called Earth reject the truth of God!

The Book of Hebrews is written so all the Jews could understand these truths.

Since the Bible is written for the Church, then the Church had better understand these things also.

The Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, but He is also the greatest of all Prophets.

He is the greatest of all kings!

He is the greatest of all lords!

He is God in the flesh which is the message of this Book to the Hebrews!

Remember a prophet of God must speak the truth because all their words came from God and cannot lie nor deceive.

We could say that all the Bible is written prophecy because all the Word of God comes by the Lord Jesus Christ and is insured correct by the Holy Spirit!

The Bible speaks of the "last days" and much of the Church always wanted to know when these "last days" began and this Book of Hebrews is specific, these "last days" began when the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ began on this earth.

This passage also reveals again that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Creator!

This book begins with (using my words) "God, at many times and in many diverse ways spoke in the past by prophets who He had "called" and "these prophets could only speak what God told them to speak".

Deu_18:22  When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

"But since time has grown short to be saved, God came to this earth as the true Prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ"

This same Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, is also our Creator!

This same Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, is also our Savior!

This same Messiah will return to get the Church because He is our Redeemer!

I believe the Apostle Paul was the writer of the Book of Hebrews, but this is not as important as the message to the Church and to these Hebrews.

The writer says: "it is time to stop teaching the Old Covenant and time to teach the New Covenant of God!

Mat 26:26  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 

Mat 26:27  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 

Mat 26:28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Yes, this is a "blood covenant" the blood of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the "Gospel".

1Co 15:1  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 

1Co 15:2  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 

1Co 15:3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 

1Co 15:4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 

The prophets of God were incredibly special servants of God.

The prophets of God had such a special message.

The prophets of God could tell others how to be acceptable to God

The prophets of God could tell others how to live to please God.

You see, no one man could ever tell us all we need to know about God.

The Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, had many things to say but He chose specific things for us, enough to give us His salvation message

God and the truth of God is far too big for any one man.

Joh 21:25  And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

Then, the Lord Jesus Christ being the ultimate Prophet of God is the supreme spokesperson of God!

One of the first things that we can understand is that God loves humanity. 

God does not want us to be in the dark in our understanding of our God!

He wants us to know where we came from.

He wants us to know why we are here, our purpose.

He wants us to know where we are going.

He wants us to know how we can conquer the trials of life, how to conquer evil and wickedness, and especially how to conquer death.

Because all these things are so important God sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ who is the "express image" of God.

*****Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 

Heb 1:4  Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 

We should understand that God used His Son Jesus to be the Creator of all we see and all that we cannot see.

**He is our Savior, and He is also our Maker!

We see here another reason that the Lord Jesus is far above any prophet even all the prophets of God!

We know that it was the Lord Jesus who Created all the worlds or all this universe. 

We know that all the great universe that can be seen so far, is vast with many solar systems, but we should keep in mind that the Greek word (aiones) could also mean (Ages).

**Jesus Christ is the Maker of all our vast universe and all the ages that roll one after another.

Jesus Christ is in control of all of time, as it moves forward to its end.

Event to event and generation to generation, will all come to their conclusion with the beginning of eternity or the time of no time.

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 

Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is the "Glory" of God Himself!

There is no human that can compare to our Savior and our Maker!

The Lord Jesus Christ possessed the glory of God before He came to this earth to make away for our freedom from sin!

Jesus Christ has always existed as the "Glory of God".

Which means all those places in the Old Testament where we read of the "Glory of God" we are reading about the Lord Jesus Christ!

Just as the glory of the Sun reaches down to earth and touches the lives of mankind, then the Lord Jesus Christ has in every Age been that glory of God that has reached down to this earth to touch the lives of all mankind, but most of the world has ignored Him.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the "express image" of God, which means in every way He is the exact representation of the God of the Bible!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the physical being of the God of the Bible because He is the God of the Bible!!!

**Jesus Christ is the very substance the very Person of God!

Joh 10:30  I and my Father are one.

Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 

Joh 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 

**Jesus Christ is the Sustainer of this thing called our Universe.

All Christians that accept that "climate change" is because of humans, have forgotten that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sustainer of our Universe.

Yes, we could do a better job in all things that relate to our home planet, but we are not in control of it, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who allows or does not allow all the things that are going on, good or bad!

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the glue that keeps our Universe together!

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

**The Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer

It is our Maker who sacrificed Himself so that we can live in eternity!

When we believe, when we truly believe in all the things of our Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness and the death, then God takes this faith and honors it by counting that man or woman or child as being in the righteousness and the death of His Son and therefore pure enough to enter into Heaven, their sins being washed away by the blood of Christ.

1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Rev 1:5  And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 

You see all the things written down for us about the Lord Jesus Christ are then true!

At least in the KJV Bible which is an English translation of the "Received Text"!

**It is by the Lord Jesus Christ that we can have a conversation with our God!

He is Mediator and Intercessor and the only Person who has the right to represent us before God!

Jesus Christ is not our Judge; we have already been judged by the Word of God.

Jesus Christ stands before God to plead for us, and to offer His own righteousness and His sacrificial death for us.

God will now deal with us in love and not in judgment!

Heb 7:25  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

**The Lord Jesus Christ is superior to all life in Heaven but His Father, and He is on equal standing with His Father because they are One and the Same.

*****Heb 1:4  Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 

Heb 1:5  For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? 

Angels do actually exist, and they are glorious beings created by the Lord Jesus Christ to be His messengers and also His servants.

They are spiritual beings who live in God's presence, but we are wrong to look to angels instead of Jesus Christ.

When we take any attention that should be shown to the Lord Jesus Christ and offer it to the angels, we have made them false gods!

This is a terrible sin!

They have their purpose, but it is not to be mediator or intercessor between us and God!

Yes, we are unworthy to approach God, but the Lord Jesus solved this problem for us and not some angel!

God is never too busy to hear from His children and no angel is ever needed to take any message to God for us.

We are never to seek an angel to meet face to face even though we may meet an angel during our lifetime. 

The angels are assigned by God Himself to do as He pleases, and they are not for our use!

Much of the world does not believe that Jesus Christ is the only Mediator, and when they seek help from the spiritual world through some angel or person in the spiritual world, this is an abomination in the eyes of God because He has told us all that the Lord Jesus is our only Mediator.

God does not ever send His angels for any of these things!

They are "messengers" and in some case provide protection for God's children.

They may deliver believers through some trials of life:

Act 12:7  And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. 

Act 12:8  And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. 

Act 12:9  And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. 

Act 12:10  When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him. 

Act 12:11  And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.

Psa 34:7  The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

Psa 91:11  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 

Isa 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is far superior to all angels!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and nowhere in the Bible does it say the angels are the sons of God!

Psa 2:7  I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 

God did not send nor cause any angel to be born in this world, and you cannot be a child of God without being born into this world!

God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to secure perfection and righteousness for mankind and Christ obeyed, and by His obedience He forever established a relationship between God and man

Jesus Christ is far superior to any angel because God is a Father and Jesus Christ is the only Son of God.

It is Jesus Christ who made our way to meet God face to face.

No angel could ever have accomplished this!

*****Heb 1:6  And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. 

When we understand that the Lord Jesus is the "first" begotten, we should understand the superiority of the Lord Jesus being above all others.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is to be worshipped and praised and not some angel!

When the Lord Jesus Christ was born into this world by His mother Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was attended to and worshipped by the angels.

When the Lord Jesus Christ returned to Heaven, He was attended to and worshipped by the angels.

When the Lord Jesus returns to this earth, and it is not as far away as we might think, He will be attended to and worshipped by the angels!

Mat 13:41  The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 

Mat 13:42  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

The Lord Jesus Christ entered into this world to save mankind!

He did not send that angels to do this for Him!

He is that person who conquered life, death, and Hell to save mankind not the angels!

It is Jesus Christ by whom we can make it to Heaven and not some angel!

Php 2:9  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 

Php 2:10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 

Php 2:11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

It is the angels who are commanded to worship the Lord!

*****Heb 1:7  And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. 

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 

Heb 1:9  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is God's heir, angels are only created beings to serve God in the operation of His creation!

The Lord Jesus Christ is not a created being, but God in the flesh!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Sovereign Majesty of this universe and of all His creation!

He is God Himself!

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who has a throne that is eternal, forever, and forever!

Joh 3:31  He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. 

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who has been anointed with the oil of gladness above all people!

That word "fellows" means all creatures in Heaven and all creatures upon this earth!

Jesus Christ is above all angels.

Jesus Christ is above all prophets, all priests, and all kings.

Jesus Christ is above all believers, living or dead!

Jesus Christ is exalted because He is God!

Jesus Christ rules and reigns in righteousness.

Jesus Christ hates sin and iniquity.

Therefore if we look to angels for help, we will get no help, we must look to the Lord!

God loves His Son Jesus enough to believe everything He says!

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 

Rom 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

If we place our faith in anyone else but Jesus Christ, then we will fail, the angels cannot help us but by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ!

*****Heb 1:10  And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: 

Heb 1:11  They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 

Heb 1:12  And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. 

Everything Christ Jesus made in the beginning will perish!

All His children will have been "Born Again"

Everything that has been "Born Again" will survive throughout eternity.

It is our Creator we owe our life to, not some angel!

It is our Creator that will keep us throughout eternity and not some angel.

The only ones who will live in eternity are the Lord Jesus Christ and those that He has saved to be with Him.

Eph 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 

Eph 3:11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 

Eph 3:12  In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. 

We need to quit wasting our time on fallacies, and grab hold of our Savior and never let go!

Time grows shorter every day.

Jesus Christ has finished all the work on this earth as the faithful Son of God and we will meet Him in the clouds on Redemption Day better known as the Rapture of the Church.

Jesus Christ has conquered the forces of sin and death, so that we may live and be with Him forever.

Jesus Christ now sits on His throne in Heaven and is the Right Hand of God, which means it is He who has the power of the Living God!

God at no time has ever told any angel to sit at His right hand and some say it is these things that caused Lucifer to rebel.

As believers we are to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation and life!

Angels are powerful creatures but under the direct control of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is He who is Captain of the angelic hosts.

Angels are servants and not lords.

Christ and Christ alone is Lord, of all His creation!

Amen

Jesus Christ, Our Unchanging Lord

Jesus Christ, Our Unchanging Lord

Book of Hebrews Chapter 13

We have had an exciting study of this Book of Hebrews. We must remember that the theme of the Book of Hebrews is the fact that Our Lord Jesus Christ and Christianity is far superior to that of Judaism, a religion that recognizes Jehovah but not the Holy Trinity.

In fact Jesus Christ and Christianity is far superior to any religion. Christianity is not a religion, It Is Simply The TRUTH!

We have only touched on many of the important things in this great book of the Bible. This is not to say that the scriptures not covered are any less important. The main thing about God's Word is that all scripture is important to every believer!

2Ti 3:16 [All] scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

What we need to realize is that when we neglect God's Word after we know we clearly understand what He is saying, can bring chastisement of the Lord that will replace any blessing that could have come from obedience!

Jas 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

Jas 1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Jas 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, [this man shall be blessed in his deed].

We know that God loved everyone that has ever walked on the face of this Earth enough to send His Son to redeem us from "all" our sin.

This gift of His Son was Jesus Christ!

If God had such a great love then we should begin to show that love after we have met Jesus and He has saved us.

The Bible tells us:

1Jn 3:14 [We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren]. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

It is a sign of the Christian when he loves all his brothers and sister around the world, the full Body of Christ!

The love of our brothers and sisters should be noticeable in every place that the Body of Christ gathers.

But this is not all. We are still to show love to every stranger that we meet.

God had told the children of Israel this and our God never changes!

Deu 10:19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

We all were once lost and we know that the world does not show much love and hatred is growing in all our world!

The Bible teaches us many great things that will happen in our future once we are saved but the Bible also teaches us how we should act until that time comes!

Our Text:

*****Heb 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.

First this verse does not tell us to love as brothers!

The Bible teaches us that we are to love [Because We Are Brothers]!

We are all in the same family of God!

We are, once we are saved, and we will be throughout eternity!

Our love for one another is proof to the world that we belong to Jesus:

Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Joh 13:35 [By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another].

This should be a fervent love and not something that is fake or mediocre:

1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:]

We cannot allow our feelings toward one another grow cold!

***** Heb 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: [for thereby some have entertained angels unawares].

We might think that we may never meet an angel, much less entertain them but there is proof of this in the Bible:

It happened to Abraham:

Gen 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

Gen 18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:

Gen 18:4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:

It happened to Lot:

Gen 19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

Gen 19:2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.

Gen 19:3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

It happened to the parents of Samson.

Jesus said in a parable, when we have entertained a stranger He will credit it just we had done this for Him.

Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

This does not mean we can safely take in every stranger we meet!

It does mean we should have an attitude of hospitality to all our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We must follow the lead of the Holy Spirit in all things.

We might meet some wonderful people but we may also meet an angel unaware!

The Bible would not say this if it were not true!

*****Heb 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

As persecution of the Christian increases throughout the world, we need to be aware of those that are jailed just for their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must always keep in mind that when one of our brothers or sisters are suffering, the entire Body of Christ is suffering!

When we cannot do anything else we have our greatest weapon [which is our prayers for them]!

If God lays someone on your heart or leaves a name on your mind, He wants you to pray for them immediately!

If that someone is suffering in anyway then God may even want you to find them and fellowship with them!

There are many a Saint of God not able to attend the House of God because of their health.

I know I fail miserably in these things!

Again Jesus said:

Mat 25:35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

*****Heb 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

I believe the Lord's purpose for His creation was that of a perfect marriage between one man and one woman!

I also know that marriages fail but that does not mean that God's purpose failed.

Mat 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

Mat 19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

Mat 19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

I believe that God intended that children be raised by this same family unit of one man and one woman.

I believe that the godly home is the center of every social structure.

I believe that when a husband and wife that are consenting to each other and close the doors to their bedroom that what happens is between them and God and He has already said that the bed is undefiled!

I also believe that any other type of sexual relationship is wrong whether it be, premarital, extra marital, homosexual, incestuous or anything else.

These are all illegal affairs that go against the Word of God!

It does not matter what the world thinks or says, God will judge this type of behavior!

Though I am single now and have been for more than 15 years, I still remember the good times of my marriage.

I also believe that since a marriage is a Biblical thing of God, it is foolish to teach sex education in our schools!

There is only one rule, abstain until a Biblical marriage.

The Bible says:

Eph 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

Eph 5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

Eph 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

*****Heb 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Heb 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Someone once said that "it is harder to be a Christian when we are comfortable, "than when we are suffering".

The word "conversation" as used in this passage means: "your manner of life".

We as Christians must lead our lives without coveting the things of this world!

When we become covetous we will certainly be disappointed and become discontent with what we have in this life!

When we put the almighty dollar before the things of God, then money has become an Idol that we have placed between us and God.

There is no doubt that are many so poor in this world "that to be content in their conditions sounds like a terrible thing"!

BUT, That word "covetousness" as used in this verse is a direct reference to the "love of money"!

We as Christians are to be content with what we have. This does not mean that God will not bless us and make things better because He knows what we need:

Jesus had these words for all of us:

Mat 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Mat 6:8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: [or your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.]

God knows what we need even better than we do and He will do something about meeting our needs!

Again God tells us:

1Ti 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1Ti 6:7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

1Ti 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

God has certainly blessed me much more than I deserve!

When we are covetous, we are in reality not trusting God and believing that He will provide for us!

Chapter 11 was about "faith". Our "faith" must include our trust in Our Lord God!

When we have God, we have enough!

He will never forsake His children!

Our security is not in the material things of this world!

Our security is in "the One" that made these promises to us!

Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory [by Christ Jesus].

How can we expect anything of God when we do not believe His Son!

Heb 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.

Our lesson manual teaches us to have the right attitude about the Word of God and we must also have the right attitude about ourselves and about others!

*****Heb 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Who are these that rule over us?

Those that have spoken to us the Word of God!

The Apostle Peter said he was one and he tells us of others:

1Pe 5:1 [The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder], and [a witness of the sufferings of Christ], and [also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:]

1Pe 5:2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

1Pe 5:3 Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.

If we do not have these types of rulers in our place of worship then we need to find a better place of worship but when we do have such great examples, then we must remember them and follow in their "faith"!

It is the Shepherd who is to have the God-given authority over the flock!

A Shepherd is to be an example and not an overlord!

But that Shepherd must lead us in the ways to and of Jesus Christ!

Praise the Lord for our Pastor, Preacher Sam who is our shepherd here at Gethsemane!

In fact we are blessed in this Church to have so many that honor the Word Of God!

But we must all still "Seek The Lord" for His will in our own lives!

We cannot be loyal to Preacher Sam just because he is our Pastor but ONLY because he will lead us to Jesus Christ!

*****Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

The title of our lesson is "Our Unchanging Lord".

There is no greater truth in the Word of God!

Remember what Peter said, Our example is Jesus!

We still have this same Jesus.

We still have this same Gospel of Jesus.

We still have the same Almighty God!

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Our Lord does not ever change and He has given us His "unchanging" Word. We can depend on the "unchanging" Word of God.

God's Word has not evolved into something that means something different in our so-called modern day!

*****Heb 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

We must examine all teaching by how it matches up to the Word of God!

We must reject all that is false!

This age we live in, is the time of God's Grace!

Act 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, [and to the word of his grace], which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

We must be strong in the "Grace of God" that comes through His Son Jesus Christ:

2Ti 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, [be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus].

2Ti 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

What would the Apostle Paul write to us if he were alive today?

He would have this same message, because God's Word will never change!

It is not what we eat that keeps us alive as much as it is The Word of God that sustains us!

The Bible says:

Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

Col 2:17 [Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ].

We cannot be saved by a shadow!

We cannot be sustained by a shadow!

It is the truth of the Word of God that "makes" us free!

*****Heb 13:10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

To be a believer is to have an altar in Heaven, which is Jesus Christ.

Our Mediator, which is also Jesus Christ is there to receive our spiritual sacrifice!

All those that served the altar of the Tabernacle obeying those old dietary laws and believing that they could be saved by those animal sacrifices are not welcome to that altar that is in Heaven.

Our altar is at the "Throne of Grace" and is not based on any law but the "Law of Grace".

There is nothing wrong with gathering to have fellowship around a meal in God's House but Real Christian fellowship comes from fellowship around the Word of God!

*****Heb 13:11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.

On a normal day the Levite priests who tended the altar in the Tabernacle could eat the meat of the sacrifice.

But on the "Day of Atonement" only the blood use use in sacrifice [and the animal was taken outside the camp and burned].

*****Heb 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

Because this was a "type" of the sacrifice of Our Lord, Jesus died outside the city of Jerusalem.

Joh 19:19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Joh 19:20 This title then read many of the Jews: [for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city:] and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

His blood, in contrast to that of the animal, is the only acceptable sacrifice for all our sin!

We are to have no part with any religion that refuses Jesus and His blood sacrifice!

*****Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Those early Jewish believers had to break all ties with Judaism!

Every "Born Again" child of God must break all ties to our past sinful life.

Yes we are still sinners, but the Law of "Grace" is greater than any law of man!

We are not just going outside the city, or outside the country. [Our home is outside this universe and in Heaven itself].

That's where we will find our Savior!

*****Heb 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

There is nothing on this Earth that should be dear to us. If you cannot tell by now just read the newspaper and watch the news.

The Christian is an outcast to this society we live in!

Even in America there is a movement that ask all Christians to leave our own nation. We are not welcome here anymore!

What are we seeking?

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

*****Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

The Christian Altar is "Spiritual"!

Our Sacrifice is our "Praise" and this should be the "fruit of our lips"!

Our Sacrifice is our "thanksgiving" to Our Holy God!

Psa 54:6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.

Psa 54:7 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.

*****Heb 13:16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

We must not forget the Sacrifice of "ourselves in doing good"!

As God meets our needs, He makes us aware of the needs of others and He expects us to be a part of fulfilling the need of those others.

This is "Not" because He will not do this but it is because He gives us the opportunity to get one of His blessings.

Not just here on Earth but a reward laid up in Heaven.

Verses 17-19 are not part of our lesson today but the highlights are:

If in the place you worship you have a Pastor who preaches the truth of the Gospel of Christ, then we are to obey that Word of God.

That Pastor is held accountable by God Himself!

The greatest sin of the believer is to know the Word of God [and not obey the Word of God]!

We should pray for all the Body of Christ and especially for those that are ministering the Word of God!

****Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

Heb 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

God will bring judgment to this world but never in the Bible is He called a "God of War"!

We know that the number 5 is the number for "Grace" and exactly 5 times we can see the phrase "God of peace" in the written Word of God.

It is the "God of Peace" that brought about the "Resurrection" of the Lord Jesus Christ!

There is nothing in the entire Bible more important to the Christian Church than the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came out of that grave on the third day!

We know that as the "Good Shepherd" Jesus Christ died for the sheep!

Joh 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

But as the "Great Shepherd" we must know that Our Lord lives for the sheep!

Our Great High Priest has also become Our Great Shepherd.

When Jesus was on this Earth He worked to redeem our souls.

Now that Jesus is in Heaven, he is working to mature us to act in His Will to bring us to perfection. We cannot reach that point until He returns.

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

As the Great Shepherd Jesus will return to to get His sheep.

1Pe 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

1Pe 5:4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

It is on this day that we will reach perfection!

Throughout this Book of Hebrews we have seen that the ultimate responsibility for bringing every believer to perfection rests on Jesus Christ.

It is Jesus that will present His Church to the almighty God [and He will not present Him an imperfect Church]!

Jesus will do what He promised!

Our job as believers is to forsake those things that get in His way and submit to His Word!

It is our "Faith" that will make us whole!

Questions?

Let's Pray!

Amen!

Jesus Christ, Our Example

Jesus Christ Our Example

Book of Hebrews Chapter 12

Who are you looking at?

What is our process of Christian growth?

A "faith" that is never tested cannot be trusted!

The challenge of every Christian is to persevere until Jesus comes or until God takes us home to be with Him!

Unless you are a "citizen of Heaven" while you are still alive on this Earth, you cannot even take part in God's challenge to remain "faithful" at all cost.

This chapter in the Book of Hebrews will teach us to have endurance and this endurance cannot happen without patience!

There is "saving faith":

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

"Saving faith" requires knowledge, conviction, and trust!

But there is also the "gift of faith":

1Co 12:9 [To another faith by the same Spirit]; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

The "gift of faith" comes only after salvation!

It is the "gift of faith" that brings brotherly love and the good works of the believer!

It is the "gift of faith" that is measurable and seen by others.

It is a great privilege to serve the Living God BUT we cannot expect to serve God and not go through some trials.

It is easy to become a Christian, but Jesus said to pick up our own cross and follow Him.

A cross is a symbol of pain and suffering!

My worse day being saved is better than my best day when I was lost.

Our example is Jesus Christ!

It is only when we follow in His ways that we can be called a Christian.

If we are not involved with the work of God, how can we say we are Christians. If you are not being obedient to the Word of God you are not like Christ and therefore not a visible Christian.

It is in our obedience where we will find fulfillment and joy!

It is not our behavior that pleases God as much as it is our belief that we can only do all things through Christ Jesus who gives us the strength and the endurance to accomplish whatever God has for us to do!

God wants us to realize that we cannot stand on our own two feet, we must rely on Him to meet all our needs and He will!

When we look back to chapter eleven we can see that each and every individual suffered hardship as they walked in "their faith"!

*****Heb 12:1 "Wherefore" seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and [let us run with patience the race that is set before us,]

Wherefore means that since we have all these great witnesses of the "faith" in chapter 11!

[The Greek word "martoos" is translated as witness in this verse but the meaning is also of a martyr!]

To these Jewish believers, most of these men and women would have been "Heroes" to them.

We must not forget it is Our God that inspired the writing of His Word so it is God that is bearing witness for these heroes of the "faith".

As we live out our lives, with Jesus as our example, do you think your name could have been written down in God's Book because of your "faith".

God saw that we of the New Covenant would need to learn endurance and patience from the Heroes of "faith" in the Old Testament.

When a marathon runner is practicing for the big race, they will used ankle weights to increase their endurance but when it comes race day, they will not be wearing any weights because they would only slow them down.

So, what are the weights that are hindering our service to the Almighty God? We need to remove them, so that we might win the race of our "faith"?

There are no losers in the "Race of Faith"!

BUT, we must remove everything that hinders our progress!

This can even mean we must remove some things that others think are good things.

Our choices cannot be between good and bad!

Our choices must be between better and best!

But, this surely means we cannot carry unconfessed sin!

And, it surely means we must remove all unbelief!

Remember what we have learned?

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

That word "faith" was used 21 times in chapter 11.

Faith Brings With It Endurance!

The Greek word "agon" used for our English word "race" means a contest that is intense.

Satan, the Devil is real and we can be sure that he is very serious about taking as many of God's people to Hell with him as he can!

We are in a marathon race and not a hundred yard dash! We will need endurance!

That word weight also means we we must physically and mentally get in shape for this race.

We must have knowledge of the Word of God and be spiritually fit to get into this race.

This race is only on one course!

Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

As Christians we are to run this race no matter the cost!

We cannot just drift along we must be a true competitor!

A Christian that gets into the race for God cannot ever be a looser:

1Co 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

We cannot allow the sin of this world and the sin of unbelief to hinder us:

Gal 5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

Every question we have of ourselves should not be about right or wrong, our main concern should be "How Does It Affect My Testimony?"

*****Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

In Chapter 11 we saw many heroes of "faith" but to these Jewish believers many of these were actually national heroes to be honored and to look up to.

In our verse they are told to look to Jesus. Notice it does not say to Jesus Christ. By just using the name Jesus these people are told to just look at the man Jesus.

Jesus had always honored the children and many of those children were now adults and it can be said that some of these of the early church had actually met the man Jesus.

So they were told to look at the man Jesus, what He had stood for, what He had accomplished, how He had suffered being innocent and how He had died.

They knew of these things. Some of these things had happened in their own life times.

They knew of the resurrection and they had now believed because they were converts to the early church. So not only look upon Jesus as the Messiah but look upon Him as a man. An example "or the example" to follow much more so than all those Old Testament heroes.

Jesus is all our example of what it is to be a Christian!

Jesus is the "author" of our faith.

The Greek word "archegos" is used here which means Jesus is the "chief leader" and the "prince" of our "faith"!

Jesus pioneered Christianity!

Jesus is the Captain of God's army!

Not only is He the "Author" but He is the "Finisher"!

The Greek word "teleiotes" is used here and in only one other place in the Bible.

This means Jesus was the "Perfecter" of our "faith".

He was "The One" that in "His own Person" raised "faith" to it's perfection!

Jesus is The One that walked in this world and set the highest example of "faith"!

The best example in the Old Testament that was given was in the time of Moses:

Num 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Num 21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

Num 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, [Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole]: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

Num 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, [that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.]

Jesus said Himself:

Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

Joh 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

If we look to anyone or anything besides Jesus we have looked in the wrong direction!

Our Lord endured far more than any of the Old Testament heroes of "faith"!

It was a shameful thing for a Holy God to pour Himself in a body of flesh to redeem His people but it had to be done to restore mankind to the fellowship that God once had with Adam!

God gets His joy from fellowship with His greatest creation which is man!

Psa 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: [in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.]

Pro 4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

It brought Jesus great joy to present His "Born Again" children to His Father:

Jud 1:24 Now unto him [that is able to keep you from falling] and [to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy],

And not one can ever fall again!

Don't you just love the Word of God that tells us in so many ways that we were certainly lost but now we are found by "our Creator" who has also become "our Savior"!

*****Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

This entire Book of Hebrews was given to these of the early church to teach them of the hope of looking forward by "faith".

All those Old Testament heroes had looked forward. That is the principle of "faith".

We must live for the future to be able to deal with the nasty here and now!

Just like Peter when we take our eyes of the Savior we will sink in this nasty world!

Mat 14:28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

Mat 14:29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

Mat 14:30 [But when he saw] the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

Another lesson to learn from this verse is that immediately when Peter asked, "the Lord to saved him and it happened at that very moment.

God does not have to think about it when a lost soul has repented and ask for forgiveness in faith!

Salvation happens immediately!

Mat 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, [O thou of little faith], wherefore didst thou doubt?

It is our lack of "faith" that hinders the fruit that God intended to come from our salvation!

*****Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

As a saved people, we have only one resource and that is Christ.

Christianity is based on the "Work of One", Jesus Christ!

Not in any Temple!

Not in any ritual!

Not in any religion!

Not in any denomination!

That word "chastening" usually brings the thoughts of punishment but the true interpretation of the Greek word "paideia" [is that of tutoring, educating, and training that can come with some disciplinary action of the Lord.]

And the Greek word "elegcho" for "rebuke" really means [to convict and sometimes to convince] which means [our shame of failure] is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

God is not sitting in Heaven with a whip to correct us but He is sitting in Heaven with a loving guiding Hand of Correction!

The Christian experience is a long steady process that requires endurance. We must prepare our minds and our hearts for the long haul because, It Will Be Worth Every Mile Of The Trip!

*****Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

When we are suffering, it is easy to think that God does not love us.

In verse 5 we saw the word "children". We now see the words "son" and the word "sons".

None of these words refer to little children but they refer to adult children.

A parent that repeatedly chastens infant children is truly a monster.

Remember we are adopted into the family of God at any age!

Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Gal 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

And adult children require a different approach than babies.

We must all become mature adult sons and daughters who can be trusted with the responsibilities of life, where God has placed us!

Psa 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Psa 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

Why do God's people suffer:

1.) We do stupid things which shows our immaturity. We continue in our old sin.

2.) We suffer because we take a stand for Jesus. He suffered and so will we.

3.) We suffer because of unconfessed sin in our lives. We must repent as soon as we have sinned. If we refuse to deal with the sin in our lives God will deal with it!

4.) We will suffer in our flesh because of past sin. When we have smoked all our days, or have been addicted to alcohol, or drugs or the many other things that destroy our bodies and our minds we cannot and He will not heal us of these things. He will comfort us through these things.

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

5.) We will suffer sometimes because, we are in God's plan and not our own and we are a tool in His hands and for His purpose. We simply do not know the big picture that God sees.

6.) We will also suffer for our "faith"! We will face many battles in the name of the Lord but we may not be victors in our own eyes. Again we do not see the big picture. God says to put on the "armor of God". That should tell us we are going to war. Their are casualties in all wars!

7.) We will suffer last of all sometimes because, as children we require discipline at the loving hand of God!

*****Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

But if you are going through life all happy go lucky with no chastisement, thinking you are saved then you need to have a checkup at the altar. God says you are not in the family yet!

*****Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Whether or not you listened too by your earthly father, you had better listen to your Heavenly Father!

God disciplines in "His Wisdom and in His Love" that we might truly live!

Our Father will discipline us in severe ways sometimes!

And we should remember:

1Jn 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. [There is a sin unto death

: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

1Jn 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.

I believe that there is a boundary for each Born Again child of God that we should not ever step over because it will mean our death. BUT, It does not mean we loose our salvation!

Pro 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Pro 3:8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

*****Heb 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Any child who does not learn subjection to authority will never become useful in any family!

Any child of God that does not learn this early in their spiritual life are in danger of physical death!

We have proof of this in scripture:

1Co 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

1Co 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

1Co 11:30 [For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep].

We can see that not being reverent to the things of God can lead to our death!

Our health can depend on how we serve Our Father who is in Heaven!

God will not allow any of His children to disgrace His good name beyond His purpose!

Our lesson skips a few verses down to verse 18.

God emphasizes in these verses to not get in despair and to not be discouraged when he allows things of discipline to happen in our lives.

In most cases it is the coward who gives up when things get hard!

Cowardice is contagious!

It takes courage to be a Christian!

It take courage to revive God's people!

Pro 4:25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Pro 4:26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Pro 4:27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

It is better to repent and move on than "to wallow in our guilt"! We must remember we are still sinners saved only by God's "Grace"!

Now let us continue:

*****Heb 12:18 [For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched], and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

Heb 12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

Heb 12:20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

Heb 12:21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

Do we really want to know the difference between "Grace" and "The Law"?

We see here a picture of the Law, a picture of the Old Covenant with Israel.

There were at least 2 million people that came out of Egypt with Moses. They were unorganized. They did not have the things with them to sustain the necessities of life. They were a traveling mob and very discouraged.

When they reached Mount Sinai and God showed His Power they were in great fear for their lives.

But verse 18 says to the child of God that Mount Sinai has been replaced with Mount Calvary!

A Born Again child of God we will never face Mount Sinai!

It is the cross and the shed blood of Jesus and our own "Faith" that will drive the Church!

*****Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Heb 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Heb 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The Laws of Moses had their beginning at Mount Sinai.

The true Gospel of God would have it's beginning in Jerusalem!

AND, Mount Sion represents the New Covenant of "Grace"!

Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; [the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.]

Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Gal 4:26 [But Jerusalem (which is above is free), which is the mother of us all.]

Mount Zion is God's Heavenly city!

This where the Lord dwells at this time and this is our eternal home! The blood of Jesus has given us a right to a place in this city.

Joh 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also

Even after Lucifer and his angel followers were tossed out of Heaven there are still more angels in Heaven than can be counted!

Luk 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

This took place the very day Lucifer defied God.

The word "innumerable" is what is called a "Myriad"!

The "first born" child in the families of Israel inherited the birthright, BUT every Born Again child of God has a birthright in Heaven and so are called "the Church of the First Born".

These are all the ones written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; [but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven].

There is a final judgment on all those that have persecuted "the Church of the First Born"!

The spirits of just men made perfect are those that have gone on before us!

1Pe 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, [the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God], being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

"Were it not for the blood" of the New Covenant we would not ever be able to enter into this Heavenly city!

Jesus says:

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

There is an econumicle movement going on in the world right now, which means that everyone is going to the same Heaven even though they are traveling different paths.

This is an absolute lie of Satan. There is still only one way to Heaven and that is to be washed in the blood of Jesus! The "Blood" of the New Covenant!

Preachers are wrong when they refuse to preach on Heaven and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

There can be no marriage counseling until you are married to Jesus Christ!

It is the truth that we had no life to commit to Christ Jesus until He gave us a new life!

If we are not looking up to Heaven we are looking to the wrong place.

Php 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Php 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

The "blood " of Abel cried for vengeance!

The "Blood" of Jesus Christ calls for forgiveness, and cleanses the guilty conscience, and OPENS THE WAY TO HEAVEN!

*****Heb 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

We must pay close attention to the Holy Inspired Word of God:

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

We must hold on to this Gospel because it gives life!

God is still speaking to us today through His Word!

As God shook Mount Sinai and as the days grow closer to the Second coming of Christ Jesus, we will see more shaking of this world we live in!

The difference for the Christian is that we will one day live in an unshakable world!

Our God is a consuming fire!

A fire will not go out until all fuel has been consumed.

When judgment comes, God will perfectly cleanse this world of sin to the point of destruction. If not why would there be a New World, a New Jerusalem and even a New Heaven?

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

We cannot play games with God, by playing church.

Hag 2:6 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;

Hag 2:7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

There is a whole lot of this shaking going on right now!

Questions?

Let's Pray!