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
