Tue, Aug 15th - 10:09PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11 VS 8-10

Brothers and sisters, isn’t it awesome that the God of the universe who blesses us with all spiritual blessings through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ God the Son of God, desires and is pleased when His children blesses His holy name!

Say it with me saints (G40 hagios), Father God we love and bless your Holy Name, Lord Jesus, God the Son of God, we love and bless your Holy Name, God the Holy Spirit, we love and bless your Holy Name.

We your holy family of priests under our High Priest/Saviour/Mediator Jesus Christ turn towards you our God with hearts full of gratitude that you have given us the eternal right, privilege, delight, and honor to call you our Almighty, Invincible, Unshakable God and to bless your Holy Name forever. And the church said: AMEN!, AMEN!

The Holy Spirit of Truth goes into over -drive through Paul the apostle describing and teaching us God’s absolute eternal standard of faith with many examples of the saints and the aints, to take away, reflect/meditate on and measure our own faith with complete accuracy thereby, because every authentic Christian can attain to it, by the power of God. Dearly beloveds, let us often encourage and build up one another in love, truth and faith, through worship, fellowship, and prayer, to be pleasing to our God.

Some might want to know what happened to the children of Adam and Eve that they had after the birth of Seth. It appears that God gives us no information about them directly, but it is certain that at the time of the flood, if any were still present, they perished right along with the descendants of Cain.

Does this mean that Cain’s line was entirely wiped out? We cannot know, because God does not tell us what line the wives of Noah’s sons were from. All we can say with absolute certainty is that no one can be accepted by God on the basis of genetics, but by faith only.

Didn't Lord Jesus teach us flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN OF THE SPIRIT to become a child of God and enter into His kingdom.

Nor will God hold anyone responsible for the sins or the good done by persons that one is descended from. God gives everyone a fresh start if they want it: Deu 24:16 “Parents must not be put to death for the sins of their children, nor children for the sins of their parents. Those deserving to die must be put to death for their own crimes.,

We know that no one will ever enter heaven or hell on the basis of what their ancestors have done. If there are any among, us, brethern who feel guilt for the evil that their parents or other relatives have done, let us encourage them that although some might throw it up in their face, God never will, so they can move forward freely, confidently, doing the will of God. At the end of the day God’s opinion is the only one that counts for all eternity.

We think about Noah, dearly beloveds, stepping out of the ark on dry land into a totally unfamiliar world after the flood where there are no longer landmarks that might reveal what direction one is traveling. It is extremely eerily quiet, broken only by the sounds of the few souls and the animals etc he saved alive with him.

Noah was at home in God it never mattered where he was, he knew God was with Him and God was more than enough. He knew what he had to do, teach and instruct his sons in the word of God that they would pass it down to their sons. Noah passed all of his tests. 

 We find that the father of Abram died at over two hundred years old. After him we will find no one on earth anymore attaining hundreds of years of life. Now with few exceptions men would age and experience the disability and effects of aging:

Now we will find the lamentations of aging:  Ecc 12:3

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

Even in this present age somewhere Uncle Bob doesn’t need the weatherman to tell him rain is coming, Aunt Cora keeps her cane nearby. People who live to 100 or over are thought to be a very tiny fraction of the world’s population. When we see them, in every case the effect of advanced age is apparent. We will not find any marathon runners clubs of 100 -year- old athletes anywhere:

Gen 6:3And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

This is why we age, it is not by nature, but by God. Let us not think that mankind is in control, only God is in control and that is forever and always.

We know, God gives absolutely no options concerning the everlasting Standard of faith, no plan B’s, no alternatives -all of that has been wiped out by the flood waters of the world that was. Now Noah, through faith, gives mankind its second, but not the only chance to live with God forever or not. It is through the line of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah that we come to Abram, later God changed his name to Abraham.

The Faith of Abraham

(Genesis 15:1-7; Romans 4:1-12; Galatians 3:1-9; James 2:14-26)

Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Abraham knew who God was. Proof that Noah had taught the word of God and it had been passed on down through his sons and got to Abraham. God comes out of nowhere and commands Abraham, then known as Abram, to pack his bags and leave his relatives and home. 

Abraham did so BEFORE GOD EVER MADE HIM DIRECTLY PROMISES OF ANY KIND.  We understand the foundation of faith, Abraham believed God, there was no need for him to do anything but faithfully go as God had commanded. Abraham knew he did not have to know where he was going, God always knows everything all the time and that was more than enough for Abraham.

Heb 11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 

Abraham, his wife, kids and servants, animals with all their stuff was a lot to haul around, but we never find him complaining, because his comfort zone was in no one but God in whom he trusted with his whole heart. Because God was with him, he could be comfortable anywhere, even toting his household and all of their stuff from place to place. God revealed His promises to Abraham after he went in obedience as God had commanded. 

 Heb 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Abraham wanted God Himself, he could see far ahead, and looked forward to the only city where all believers can find true rest and home-in the eternal city that only God can build where men can live in eternal fellowship with Him. Raise your hand, holy brethren, if you have ever been home sick for the city of God, to see our God face to face and live in the light of His eternal love. I raised both of mine.

love and truth, serola

Sat, Aug 12th - 7:46PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11

Brothers and sisters, let us bless the Lord who has given us His word and given us His salvation so much so that John declared:  1Jo 2:12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

John does not teach, and it is a misinterpretation of scriptures that the Christian is to have a ritual of confessing and to be sorry for each sin to get forgiven for them over and over again AS UNDER THE LAW. IF THAT WERE TRUE GOD WOULD HAVE TO ABOLISH THE ENTIRE NEW TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST WHEREIN HE DECLARED WITH AN UNBREAKABLE OATH: HEB 8:12 FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR INIQUITIES WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE. Therefore the New Covenant of Jesus Christ stands sure for all eternity it can never be abolished, modified or changed in any manner whatsoever- not even by God Himself.

 No, the Bible makes it plain Christians have God- given power not to practice any sin. Sin is a choice which God commands that we are to repent of and stop doing the sin, turn away from them, not easy believism of only being sorry for the sin and then keep on doing the sin. Feel free to study on your own, holy people, repentance, self -control, self- denial, the flesh vs the spirit, the old nature vs the new nature,carnal vs spirit.

John himself defends his word through the holy ghost in declaring: 1Jo 3:9

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

1Jo 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Jesus Christ Himself gives many commands and instructions regarding how the authentic believer is to live in the will of God. Lord willing after this study we will look into the book of Revelation where Christ Himself commands/teaches on this matter.

I thank God for the pastors, elders, and teachers who preach the whole gospel but also demand that their congregations' study and know the Bible for themselves, help others to know it, and not remain dependent perpetual students. We see an example of Paul of this with the Hebrew believers and in other books with the gentiles as well.

Looking back on the world before the flood, God gives us hindsight, insight, and foresight on why He destroyed countless persons except for eight souls. We know that even though Adam caused mankind to lose Eden, God in His mercy spared Adam and Eve, giving mankind a chance to get it right with God. Now, mankind had to feed themselves, God left a token of His displeasure with Adam and all men, before the flood, in cursing the ground, no more abundant fruits, veggies, and herbs as in Eden. Now Man had to wrest these things out of the cursed ground, and they were barely of quality. It is likely they had to make do with the best of the worst so to speak.

It was common knowledge in the world before the flood for the reason that God had cursed the ground, they also were convinced of this due to the harsh conditions of getting anything to grow out of it.

In light of the aforementioned we take a little time to look back at Cain to fully understand why his voluntary offering was not accepted by God. God gives us our first look at and insight into an unmistakably evil person. He is a precursor of Judas Iscariot, and the children of the devil that would follow.

We know, dearly beloveds, God gives us a deep look into the world before the flood, showing us that He remained open to mankind, they were eyewitnesses of His presence and He spoke to them over time.  God made all His commands known to men; they could freely come to Him and He would receive them.  The world that was, still had a good climate, there was plenty of water, and cattle. The earth was stable, there were no known volcanic activity, earthquakes, war, or floods, there were no diseases and no disability of old age, and life was exceedingly long. Yet in countless generations we find very few men turning to God. It makes some shake their heads in wonder, how could mankind blow all that God had to offer so casually!

Cain knowingly, willfully brought of the cursed ground to challenge the will of God in his so- called offering. He murdered his brother because he was a murderer proving he had no love for his brother or God. This is the first murder in human history, and the first and only time in human history that God cursed anyone to the extent that nothing they planted in the ground would ever grow, as a perpetual testimony that they were evil. All we know about Cain, after God banished him from His presence, is that he had only one son. His line continued through this son. After that we read nothing further of his life or death in the world before the flood, although his name is briefly mentioned in some places.  After the flood we do find scripture regarding him- nothing of it speaking of him as good, but to the contrary.

What about all those persons killed by God in the flood? God gave them hundreds of years to live not just to procreate and replenish the earth but to turn to Him. Instead, they turned away from God knowingly right in His face, doing evil persistently, showing there was no further need to give them anymore time as they were never going to turn to Him in faith. We know after our first parents ate of the forbidden fruit, all men through them were born with the knowledge of good and evil. That is, they had the ability to know and do evil, but not the right from God. God still set the default mode as knowing and doing good. Although, some of them that died had never committed murder as Cain had done, they still did evil by choosing to do their own will, rejecting the will of God, proving that God has only ONE acceptable and absolute will-His own.  Still, we know, brothers and sisters, that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but would rather that they turn from evil to God. Our choices have consequences.

Nevertheless God's eternal standard is set/fixed for judging who is evil, and has been clearly,  eternally established in His word, proving the wicked have no excuse.

If God has a permissive will we don't see it in the flood, or on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. If God has a permissive will He would have to apologize to them, abolish hell, and erase the book of Revelation, none of this is ever going to happen. 

Those who believe that God has various types of wills or permissive wills, have lost sight of the big picture. Time is still in the hands of God, and time is running out. God's purpose/will is to seek and save as many willing to believe on His Son. At the appointed time He will hold a day of accounting wherein He will prove and show the difference between the good and the evil. That is between those who choose to believe the eternal truth and do His will, as opposed to those who choose to have evil hearts of unbelief and do not obey Him. We are to remember, holy people, that we are commissioned to share in His work of sharing the gospel so that as many who will believe on Him will be saved, before time runs out.

God explicitly, without apology, gives all men hindsight, insight and foresight that He is absolutely picky. He chose the best in Noah, not because Noah was a stellar scholar, baptist, methodist, lutheran, or belonged to a particular denomination, institution, organization or doctrine of men.   God chose Noah because He was faithful among all men at that time. Again, and again Paul the apostle gives meticulous, relentless, teachings that without absolute faith in God it is impossible to please Him.  God gave mankind everything He had in giving up His dear Son Jesus Christ- who would not in eternal gratitude offer up themselves to Him as a perpetual love offering in honor of His mercy and love. 

Let us take heed, holy people, not to water down the gospel or hold back-suppress the parts of the gospel that people might find disagreeable, uncomfortable, or terrifying, because God does not, neither does His Son, Jesus Christ. We are not responsible or accountable that some might get angry when they hear the gospel or turn away from it, that is on them not us. If God spared not the wicked on earth before the flood, we can be certain He will not spare the wicked after the flood.

I met a lady who believed in Christ along with the Mosaic Law, and many other personal beliefs that she had. She had read the Old Testament and felt there was no further need to ever pick up the Bible again. I am thankful she took my urgent advice to also read the New Testament, and to keep using it and all of scripture correctly, so that she would know how to live and please God. I’m very thankful that she did so coming to faith in Jesus Christ alone not the works of men or her own personal opinions.

After the flood, holy people, Noah gave a sweet smelling offering to the Lord. Even so Christ, bless His Holy Name, has given God a sweet -smelling sacrificial offering of Himself in our behalf:  Eph 5:2

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

Thu, Aug 10th - 6:42PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

HEBREWS CHAPTER 11 VS 7

Brothers and sisters, bless the Lord our God:  2Pe 1:3According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

God has left us His Word so that we can know Him and please Him accordingly. We notice again and again, that authentic faith is God focused. We will not find Paul urging anybody to set a personal agenda and “step out on faith”, or to “dream big” to attain worldly goods, wealth, power, or fame.

Line by line, precept by precept, and scripture by scripture Paul keeps focused like a laser beam showing the Hebrew believers and us too that God commands that our faith must rest in absolute trust in God, His will, His commands, all that He is, His power, His works and all that He has promised to all those who believe in Him without doubting or wavering.

The world likes to think that time will go on forever. The secular world often tries to forecast the world of the future as being better and more advanced for mankind than this present world. In all of mankind’s forecasts of the future anything concerning God is noticeably left out, as though God was a useless primitive quaint relict of the past, no longer necessary in the so- called present modern- day light of mankind’s greater knowledge.

We come to Noah. there were other persons in scripture with the same name, one of them was a woman. However, this Noah came from the line of Seth. He was not an only child, his parents had other sons and daughters after his birth. Think about Noah, all of his brothers and sisters killed by the flood of God, and his immediate family alone being the only survivors- Noah with his wife, three sons and their wives. Although Noah warned his siblings and others of the coming disaster such as the world had never seen before, they did not believe him.  

In fact, men went on willfully with their unbelieving godless lives as though nothing bad was ever going to happen to them. Jesus declares of such:  Luk 17:26

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

Luk 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

Noah married and had children. He never neglected his family nor ever used it as an excuse to shut God out of His life, but instead remained fervent and faithful to God throughout his life.

Heb 11:7By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Dearly beloveds, it might appear to some that it must have been a bittersweet moment when Noah first set his feet on dry land after the flood. We note that Noah does not express any bitterness towards God, neither does he fall to the ground in mourning for his lost sibs and others.

Instead, Noah in faith worshipping and honoring the very God who is absolutely and without exception always just in all that He does, set an offering before His Maker and Lord. The Lord, dearly beloveds, responded to Noah’s offering:  Gen 8:21And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

We see then that God was moved to remove the curse He had put on the ground for Noah’s sake.

Why did God choose Noah out of all his sibs, out of all the other men? God who knows the heart gives us His answer: Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. As a lit candle in darkness, so the righteousness of the righteous stands out amongst the darkness of the wicked.

We clearly understand that God did not count Noah faithful because he built the world’s biggest church, stretched a wire between the world’s tallest building and rode upon it on a unicycle while juggling, or any other carnal act in hopes of proving his faith and pleasing God.

There is always a great deal to take away from our study of God’s word to understand and obey. God’s patience and the time that He had set had run out for the world that was, therefore, God by His power destroyed all that was in the world except for Noah and his family. We have to understand that time is not a construct created by the imagination of men. God created time for His purposes.

We know from scriptures, brothers and sisters, that the earth was thousands of years old, but because Noah understood his assignment from God-God reset His doomsday clock to start from the age of Noah who was 600 years old, year one, giving mankind time again, a fresh start, and a second chance to obey, not to escape another flood, but the fire of the wrath of God to come next time for all who willfully refuse to obey His commands: Gen 8:13. Brethren, feel free to look up the meaning of 600 on your own.

Tue, Aug 8th - 4:58PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11 VS 5-6

Brothers and sisters, love, peace, and blessings to you. And this is His commandment that we should love one another:  2Jo 1:6

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

1Jo 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.

We know, that as we obey God and search the scriptures seeking Jesus, He searches our hearts,and the Holy Spirit too searches deep within us to see what our needs are. Jesus our Advocate/High Priest Mediator and the Holy Spirit are continually before the throne of God our Father making intercessions for us continually in the will of God to strengthen, comfort and help us to walk in love and obedience to the truth.

God, through His apostle Paul, continues to take us into this showcase on the only kind of Faith that can absolutely please God. Paul gives no dissertations on how one can get stuff from God by the formulaic “planting a seed” of faith to reap a harvest i.e., get the gold ring and all of the prizes from God; thereby objectifying God as nothing more than a cosmic slot machine, and not the very essence of who He truly is- the Reward and Rewarder of all them that love Him, the only wise God more worthy than all the treasures of earth, and worthy to be worshipped above all things for His eternal love, faithfulness, mercy, and goodness.

Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

In scripture, holy brethren, we find some different people who had the same name. The first son of Cain was named Enoch. However, the Enoch in this chapter of Hebrews 11 was the son of Jared who descended from the line of Seth. Enoch was the eldest but not the only child of Jared, for he had other sons and daughters after the birth of Enoch.

 The Bible does not give us the number of the sibs or their names.  We don’t know if any of his sibs tried to persuade Enoch from pursuing God as they might have felt it didn’t take all that, or that he was too heavenly minded and of no earthly good.

Yet it was Enoch alone of all his siblings who loved, believed, trusted in and came after God.  

We find Enoch in Jude referenced as a prophet with end times prophecy, and named in the genealogy of Joseph the husband of Mary in the third chapter of Luke. Luke makes it clear that the genealogy of Joseph as the father of Jesus was an assumption of the Jews who in error presumed Joseph to be the supposed, father of Jesus Christ.

The genealogy of Mary does not appear in scripture, because Christ is not descended from either Mary or Joseph, but directly from God the Father who placed “the seed”- Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary through the over shadowing of the Holy Spirit. We find throughout the scripture the correct genealogy of Jesus the God Man as the Son of God and the Son of man.

Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Enoch married, had a family, but still found time to persistently seek after God. There is nothing here to remotely suggest that Enoch abandoned his family to serve God as the scriptures forbids such a thing: 1Ti 5:8.

Enoch showed plainly his hunger, fervent love and need for God in walking with God boldly in trust and obedience because He wanted God Himself. God was so well pleased with Enoch that He caused him to bypass death and translated him directly into the presence of God.

All who believe in Christ have been translated into the kingdom of God- baptized into His death, and raised to life again even as Christ was raised from the dead, never to die again, but to live forever:   Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

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.

 God through Paul has spelled out to all believers for all time the absolute and only kind of faith that can please God in blunt explicit, exhaustive, exclusive and absolute eternal terms. Furthermore, those of faith must also trust that God will never do them harm, but good, always resting confidently in the truth of His love, mercy, kindness and goodness, knowing that He is a rewarder of all who come to him. NO ONE CAN PLEASE GOD WITHOUT THIS KIND OF FAITH.

Without faith in God all of our knowledge of Him is worthless and we have no valid claim of belonging to Him.

Some only come to God because they want to get something from Him. Enoch came to God because he wanted God Himself.

love and truth, serola

Sat, Aug 5th - 11:32AM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11: VS 4

Brothers and sisters, much love and peace to you blessed partakers of the faith of Jesus Christ and faith in Lord Jesus Christ, given richly to us through the grace and mercy of God our Father who is generous to us in His bountiful eternal love and everlasting truth.

We know, because God is love He commands us: 1 John 4:7: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God."  

The love of God is not sensual, nor of a sexual nature out of flesh, but the ultimate pure and holy eternal spiritual love of God Himself.

Thanks be to God our Father for the joy and fellowship we have always with Him and in His Word. As mentioned before, faith has been misinterpreted by some Christians, perverted by apostates, and secularized in the world among unbelievers who misappropriate the spiritual things of God to  apply them to carnal worldly things/material goods.

But, again, we want to stay with Paul’s train of thought. He had taught and corrected the Hebrew believers concerning the gospel. Now he comes to define for them what is the only standard of faith and therefore the very definition of the purpose, and the Who of what faith is all about.

One thing we note, brethren, Paul is very explicit, exclusive and exhaustive about faith. There can be no misunderstanding that he declares to these Hebrew believers- and all believers- that all of our understanding and knowledge of God is for nothing and in vain if we do not believe Him in the absolute sense, without doubting or questioning in the SAME way that Jesus Christ God the Son of God does.  

Rom 3:4; 1Pe 1:25.

God lives forever is invincible, indestructible and all powerful, no unbelief of anyone: no foe, no man, no woman no devil nor any creature can ever nullify His word that lives forever. All of Gods promises therefore, are forever.

We know from verses 1-3 in the study just past, that Paul is absolutely not defining faith as small as a grain of mustard seed. He is addressing believers on the risen side of the cross who are expected to have faith in Jesus Christ and the faith of Jesus Christ.

Some might ask is it even possible to have this kind of faith?

We continue to look to inerrant scripture within the context of scripture to validate and give us the correct interpretation of scripture. the Bible ensures us that the very Christ who redeemed us has given us the ability to comprehend and have full and complete faith in Him: 

 Rom 12:3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

God gives every man and woman free will to do as they choose, to serve God or not. God will never force anyone to do His sovereign will. However, the unbelieving who die unrepentant, at death shall be cast into hell to await the final judgment in the lake of fire that is prepared for the devil and his demonic angels. There are terrible irreversible consequences for those who unremorsefully chose to do their own will, rejecting obedience to the will of God. This is a part of the whole gospel message that we dare not neglect sharing and warning everyone about.

What this means is God sees the unrepentant unbeliever as a child of the devil. They are no different from the devil who believes God exists, but hates God, and desires/actively seeks to destroy Him, His people and His kingdom, which is never going to happen:  

Jas 2:19Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. It is obvious that although the devils believe God exists, they show by their works that they are the enemies of God that hate Him, His people, and desire to destroy all that He is, which is never going to happen.

Brothers and sisters, God knows the heart with its intentions, thoughts and purposes as well as the quality and nature of all of its works. No one can ever fool God. No one shall stand before God with any excuse for their unbelief:  Rom 1:20.

The Holy Spirit guides us to understand that the roll call of faith addresses ONLY those who had the faith of Christ, and faith in Christ not those who had a grain of mustard seed faith under the Mosaic Law.

These elders were all absolutely convicted, convinced, and fully persuaded of all the truth of God with the evidence shown in their works, receiving commendation from God thereby.

God commends us too- because we who believe have obtained of God in Christ this same kind of faith:

1Pe 1:8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

We see, dearly beloveds, the relentless and meticulous comparison/contrasting of what faith absolutely is and what faith is absolutely not and can never be, for our learning. God is not playing around there is only one kind of faith that pleases Him and it is not that of a grain of mustard seed.  

Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Most certainly, Abel’s goodness and obedience towards God didn’t come from genetics, but from His own free will, he chose to obey God out of faith in Him, this is why God declared him righteous. Although Abel is dead, God has preserved his righteous sacrifice forever.

This model serves for Christians too. We bring God what He commands us to bring Him of our own free will to do His will to please Him, not doing our own thing trying to force or bend God to our will, this is never going to happen.

We know, due to Adam’s sin God kicked Him and Eve out of Eden. Now they had to till the ground outside of Eden that the Lord had cursed: Gen 3:17. 

Cain as the keeper of the cursed ground would have had a tough row to hoe so to speak to get anything to grow. It must have been a difficult, daunting and often disappointing task. Did Cain have a chip on his shoulder or resentment towards God because of this?

And where was Adam and Eve? You would think that one or both of them would have tried to intervene with Cain not to bring anything cursed to God in the first place. Certainly, one could ponder as to what kind of parenting could have produced a son like Cain.

However, God did not accuse the parents of being responsible for the actions of their son Cain. Neither is the devil mentioned or accused by God as being responsible for inciting Cain to sin. Apparently, Cain, the eldest had reached the age of accountability; therefore, liable, responsible, and accountable to God for His own actions.

We know that God confronted Cain for being angry that his offering was not accepted. Furthermore, God assured him that he would have other opportunity to bring an offering to the Lord and it would be accepted if it was not of anything cursed. God further admonished him to get a grip and overcome his anger rather than sin by acting it out.

We know that there were many things acceptable that Cain could have brought to God, since the only thing cursed was the ground. Cain’s action smacks of him being onery, stubborn, self-willed, and disrespectful to God. The Bible gets to the heart of Cain’s problem: 

1Jo 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 

1Jo 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.  

1Jo 3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

 1Jo 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

We see that Cain of his own free will chose to reject correction from God to humble himself and repent of his hatred and anger at his brother. Instead, Cain out of hatred and jealousy murdered Abel.

Those who do evil show themselves to be of the same nature and character as the devil, who is an evil rebellious willful murderer and hater of all that is good and God from the beginning, therefore, God calls them children of the devil. We find earlier in Genesis, Cain is listed as a son, however, after Cain is revealed as a murderer, we see in the generations of Adam in chapter 5 of Genesis Cain is not listed as a son. This is not an oversight by God. 

God leaves us no record of when or how Cain died, and that is God's business which we should leave alone. God did record for us that Cain made no apology to God nor showed a drop of remorse or repentance in murdering his brother. The only one Cain felt sorry for was himself. 

Tue, Aug 1st - 12:50PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11 VS 1-3

What Do the NIV, Satan, and Gay Sex Have in Common?

Brothers and sisters, praise God for His love and blessings. We know that no believer ever has to buy or pay for God’s salvation, love and blessings. He gave it all with Himself as a free gift-empathizing that the gift is free, not of works, that none can boast: Eph 2:9. He left the eternal and absolute qualifier or Standard in the New Covenant by which all who believe in His Son Jesus Christ can receive His free gift of salvation, love and blessings: Jhn 3:16; Jhn 14:21,24; Jhn 16: 27.

Nothing and no one outside of God’s absolute eternal Standard Jesus Christ  can qualify anyone to be eternally forgiven, saved, and receive His love and blessings-free gift. The Bible gives clear absolute warnings against those coming in “another way”, by some other means than through faith in Jesus or without Jesus or in addition to faith in Jesus.

We know, saints (G40 hagios), the Bible teaches the believer in a thorough highly repetitious intense precise/painstaking manner, in the specific, the general, and the minutiae, the book of Hebrews here no less.

Each book/chapter, LINE UPON LINE, PRECEPT UPON PRECEPT, builds upon another with the intent of God that the Christian will grasp and fully  come to understand over time the whole of the gospel thoroughly in a comprehensive manner to grow up in grace, spiritual maturity. We know the apostles gave sermons, still we find all the apostles and their disciples teaching scripture in a comprehensive manner primarily.

We know, holy people, the Bible is not ever a textbook, it is a spiritual book to feed God’s spiritual people. The Word of God is living because our God ever lives. When we open His Bible, we His spiritual people fellowship with Him in His Word, as well as when we gather together publicly and in private.

What is the message we give God, dearly beloveds when we choose to hurriedly, impatiently go through His Word to get it over with, or view it as merely a textbook?

Let us remember, saints (G40 hagios) Paul never condemned these Hebrew believers. He commended them for their steadfastness in all their trials, and for their love and charity of the brethren including himself.

However, recall that Paul the apostle found it necessary to help them rectify two mistakes they had made in ignorance, first that they were sincerely doing the work of God having abandoned the scriptures, not understanding that helping people with their temporal needs is good, but without the gospel to address their eternal spiritual needs and of those they were helping, they would not know God or how to obey Him, and were in danger of becoming a social gospel, only concerned with the physical needs of others, when God commands that both be done without exception.

Secondly, they were impatient to receive the promises showing that their faith had not borne the fruit intended by God-PATIENCE. We recall in the previous chapter that they wanted the promises of God without further delay for their good works, they were tired of waiting and had become obssessed with when was Jesus coming back to give them the promises. Our faith must produce the fruit of patience-in waiting on God and His promises.

The purpose/patience of God is to preach the gospel to save the lost, which He has allowed us to partner with Him in sharing, while doing good, living holy/loving one another and all men until the day of His appearing. This does not mean the Christian cannot enjoy things on this present earth, we are not to be ascetics, but understand that God gives us freedom to use this world without abusing it in any manner, or be obsessed with it to the exclusion of the spiritual.

Dearly beloveds, let us keep Paul’s train of thought in the upcoming chapter in mind where he uses examples of saints of old whose faith bore- patience-seeing they all remained strong under fire although they did not receive the promises, to encourage these Hebrew brethren to do the same, and us too.

Paul does not teach with haste, nor use short cuts only, or seek to dumb down the scriptures by always presenting it in bits and pieces, nor does the Bible as a whole. The body of Christ tends not to grow much only from teaching the Bible in bits and pieces the equivalent of spiritual snack.

Instead we find Paul setting a ten course spiritual dinner with all the trimmings with plenty to take home to dine on later.

We know that a lot of hurtful error and damaging doctrines come out of being impatient and careless in scriptural interpretation. One of the most damaging errors is to have private interpretations of scripture and not testing out the validity our understanding of scripture comprehensively by and within context of scripture  2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? If it’s not about Jesus it is about nothing at all.

If we don’t understand something in scripture we should not be embarrassed or ashamed, but rather seek help. God does not get angry with us for being ignorant, and He will ALWAYS help us not to stay ignorant.

Before we get into the study, saints (G40 hagios), raise your hand if you understand that all you need is just a little bit of faith, because Jesus taught we only need a little bit of faith even as small as a  grain of mustard seed to please God.

I raised my hand, but had to put it back down, because the Bible teaches us that under the New Covenant little or weak faith is no longer accepted by God. We know, we do not have to wonder why Jesus set the bar for faith so low for Israel under the Law to that of a grain of mustard seed.

That’s all He could ask of them since the religious leaders and the majority of the Jews had a disturbingly long history of unbelief, even when Jesus came to them they still didn’t believe in Him- that He is the Messiah despite His many miracles, even raising the dead.

 Mat 10:5These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

Mat 10:6But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Mat 15:24.

God sent His Son Jesus to the Jews first as He had promised. The last chance for Israel to inherit the eternal Kingdom and all of its promises ended when they rejected Jesus as their King at the cross, choosing instead to release a known criminal and put Jesus to death.

This was the last straw and final insult to God from the nation. Right then, God slammed the door shut on Israel after the flesh under the Law forever.

After the resurrection of Christ the Saviour, God opened the Door of eternal salvation with a New Covenant ( Jhn 10:7-9), to all believers, both Jew and Gentile, who would share in the kingdom and all the promises of God together equally, there no longer being any difference between Jew and gentile with God.

Therefore, God commands us to comprehend faith under the grace promised in the New Covenant now revealed in Jesus Christ, and the faith of Christ, not after faithless Israel after the flesh, which was under the Mosaic Law.

Brothers and sisters, I always am very thankful for your love, prayers, and patience in this study. Much love and peace to you. Know you are in my thoughts and prayers early and often. We know after having been taught so much about Christ that it would be an insult to God if it only resulted in our having only a grain of mustard seed faith in Him. Without question God expects better of His New Covenant saints (G40 hagios).

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Paul the apostle and our brother opens this chapter with the magnus opus, tour de force, blockbuster showpiece on faith, framed in a blaze of spiritual flashing strobe lights and neon signs, and fire commanding our attention, and undergirded with the testimony of Lord Jesus Christ Himself the God/Man who first declared the Foundation of faith- WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.

Holy people, it would be so easy for us to hastily gloss over this first verse, but let us be patient, and seek to get the sense, the understanding of what God wants us to know/teach us about faith to get it deep down in our spirits, hearts, minds, and consciences to please Him and be well able to live in, by, for with and through Him in steadfast, unwavering faith. 

Faith is absolute certainty of/in God, His Word, Truth, and power and therefore, it establishes an eternal spiritual reality and absolute proof of God’s promises, even though we have yet to see them appear in the present.

 We know that  we must not grow impatient, nor are we to allow ourselves or others to side track or get us caught up in useless intellectual arguments/speculations as to when Jesus is coming back, since nobody but God knows this.

Therefore, we know all we need to know, He will return and that is enough for the authentic Christian whose faith has borne patience in waiting.  

Heb 11:2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.

 The saints (G40 hagios) here is referring to the faithful believers of old, from Abel, going forward to those individuals out of the nation Israel who remained faithful and patient under trial. We see faith is not a human contruct that originated from the imagination, minds or will of men, but was borne of God before man was ever created and received afterwards by those elders who trusted in Him.

Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Here again, brethren, we are made to understand that faith originated from God it did not evolve out of man nor the works of man.  

UNDERSTANDING THE ABSOLUTE WHO OF FAITH

If we are ever going to understand THE WHO of  faith is, in its fullest sense, holy brethren, it is this- God spoke His Word in the absolute faith of Jesus Christ  thereby creating the physical world out of the invisible unseen spiritual world.

When God spoke He absolutely had zero doubt nor question that what He wanted to create would not come into existence through the faith of Jesus Christ His Son. For this reason the Bible not only declares that we have faith in Jesus, but also the faith OF Jesus Christ:    Gal 2:16Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 

Rev 14:12Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Therefore, in Genesis, we know/ understand that when God spoke His word, (Isa 55:11), into the void declaring let there be light; Heb 1:3; He was not speaking to the void, He was speaking to His Son Jesus Christ showing His absolute faith in the faith of Jesus- and there was light: Gen 1:3; God the Father checked out and validated the quality of the Light: Gen 1:4And God saw the light, that it was good…

Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Jhn 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

This is the faith of Jesus: Jesus absolutely never doubted His Father God but ever had absolute faith in Him- that whatever His Father commanded Him to do He was well able to do all of it without fail. In this we see Jesus honoring His Father by His faith in God His Father. Likewise the Father who first trusted in Christ, honoring the Son who always honors Him in faith. God the Father proving Jesus pleased Him, is equal with Himself and shown to be an ever obedient Son at the get go:

Jhn 8:29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

In this we understand fully what the Bible declares by faith in Jesus and  the faith of Jesus.

God keeps teaching us this temporal world is just that- temporary, only the spiritual world will last forever. The spiritual world is for spiritual people-all believers in Christ.

Now, brethren, we have to stop here a bit, because faith has been corrupted by apostates, to see faith as a tool in the hands of ordinary men by which they can manipulate/ bypass God by the power of their own will and create their own reality to bring into existence wealth, or some sort of temporal material goods/benefits for themselves. This is rebellion- witchcraft/sorcery, forbidden by God. Yet apostates justify themselves in vain mainly through perverting: Ro 4:  17(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Sadly, some believers too, in error, fasten on this verse to mean that the Christian has the same power as God to bypass Him to do their own will and create earthly material things pleasing to the flesh, although the Bible clearly forbids and debunks this foolishness: Jhn 15:5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 

God clearly instructs/warns every believer that He commands that we who are able should work for the things that we need:  2Th 3:10; 1Ti 5:8; 1Th 4:11. Of course the scriptures teaches us to voluntarily/cheerfully support ministry, help the poor and  sick, among others in their time of need of which the Bible gives many examples.

Next time, brothers and sisters, we will look at the roll call of faith focused with a spiritual laser beam pointer to delve further into  the source, quality and nature of the faith of these saints (G40 hagios) of old.