Sun, Oct 22nd - 10:50AM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11 VS 27-28

Thanks, love, blessings, praise, honor and glory to God our Father, to our God the Son of God Jesus Christ, and to our God the Holy Spirit, who has blessed us with eternal salvation and every spiritual blessing, grace, peace, hope, rest and eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, love, blessings, and peace to you. It is good to be back with you all again, you were sorely missed and longed for. Our Father, the God of all peace and comfort greatly bless and keep you in His great love and power.

 There are no words to describe the many bizarre occurrences that have happened in my life as I began and as we move towards the end of this study.

I had come to the airport hours early before my scheduled flight to have time to witness and in hopes of meeting other brothers and sisters in Christ. Before entering the airport, I humbled myself and quietly prayed for our Lord's protection, and that I might be of service and an effective witness of Him.  

At the airport, after I had been thoroughly screened and was walking away, one of the agents suddenly claimed in great fear that I had a knife in my hand and to see sharp blades protruding from the heels of my shoes. I was suddenly surrounded by agents demanding that I drop the knife and get out of my shoes.

I obeyed quickly getting out of my shoes. The agents grabbed my hands looking closely within inches of them and feeling my hands to see if somehow the knife that had disappeared I had somehow managed to hide it inside the skin of my hands. I was also searched from head to toe a good while, the accusing agent stating again and again that I had a knife and blades protruding from the heels of my shoes.

Finding nothing they let me go. The agent that had falsely accused me was very apologetic, but still claimed to have seen the knife and blades in the heels of my shoes, and never had any incident of this nature before, and could not explain any of it. Her colleagues were sorely displeased with the agent.

I told the agent not to worry about it. Although I had been surrounded by agents after she alerted them, I was grateful she had been frozen in fear, rather than to have reacted by tackling me and throwing me to the floor, therefore I escaped possible injury. 

I was able to witness and meet other Christians for which I am very thankful. 

God always tells us the absolute truth, because He is the only source of absolute truth. His word correctly interpreted and lived publicly and privately is our sole road map in this world and in the world to come, regardless of what happens to us on this present evil earth.  

Brothers and sisters let’s go on with continued patience to recall how Paul the apostle compares and contrasts the Old with the New Covenants showing in every case that the superiority of the New Covenant or New Testament is above the Old Covenant, to the extent that the Old is no longer needed by God nor required any more under the New. Furthermore, all of our knowledge is worthless to God without faith in Him, which works and is empowered by love of Him beyond all that we have.

As mentioned here many times, dearly beloveds, although there are multitudes of mature believers fully versed in the New Covenant and the scriptures as a whole, let us not be surprised or angry when we find some Christians who have never heard of the New Covenant, or do not understand what it is, or only know what it is partially. There are some congregations in which it is never even mentioned.

God commands that we must teach it. It is not learned automatically. No understanding, partial or faulty understanding of the New Covenant leads to faulty conclusions, with serious, sometimes calamitous tragic consequences.

Throughout scripture we find the apostles/disciples preaching the gospel to the lost and also correcting and teaching one another as well as all believers in the word of God:  Act 18:26;  Act 21:25; Gal 2:14.

Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

God gives us no record of how Pharaoh dealt with his daughter who had duped him and raised up a Hebrew slave secretly under his nose, whom he likely grew to admire and may have had great plans for, but now he just saw Moses as an enemy, for he had killed an Egyptian to protect a Hebrew slave.

Having been raised in Pharaoh’s house, Moses would surely have witnessed and known of the savage authority and cruelty with which Pharaoh dealt with his enemies.

Yet, Moses did not fear the powerful Pharaoh who could put people to death for no more reason than his waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Moses identified with the people of God and could see God and His Christ invisible, made visible with the eyes of faith, which gave him courage and strength out of an abundance of caution, not fear, to escape from Egypt, and to bear all his trials in the strength of the Lord whom He loved beyond all that he had.

One ponders if some might have said to Moses that he could do so much good, or better for the Hebrew nation by working within the system than outside of it. However, the God of all wisdom did not see it that way, and neither did Moses.

Heb 11: 28Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

One of the most holy memorial ceremonies in scripture is Moses’ keeping of the Lord’s passover and the sprinkling of blood. It would have been a very profound and moving experience for the people of God: see Exo 12.

Moses and Israel had the record from God of how He destroyed the first world that was, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah but delivered Just Lot and those with him: Gen 19:24; Gen 19:15. Now the Lord was coming to Egypt to deliver His people, therefore Moses kept the Lord’s passover and sprinkled the blood on the lintels and the two side posts of the doors of the Hebrews’ houses, knowing that God would keep them safe for He had promised:

Exo 12:13And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

 Moses saw the future Christ, the great Passover Lamb to come whose blood would wash away the sins of both Jew and gentiles alike forever of all who believe in Him: Luk 22:20; Jhn 6:53;  Eph 1:7;  Heb 9:12; Col 1:14.

We know holy brethren that God has given us His passover Lamb Jesus Christ whose sinless body and blood cleanses every believer forever from all sins and has forever turned away the wrath of God from all who believe. Through Christ all believers are delivered from the kingdom of darkness, the bondage of sin, and made NEW CREATIONS in Him

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

Heb 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. (See forgiveness).

No more offerings are necessary: no further doing the act of offering, bringing a sacrifice, whether bloody or not, no expiatory offering of any kind, or nature whatsoever for any sin. Just as God under the Old Testament demanded the body and blood of perfect animals to atone for the sins of the nation under the law that only granted a limited and temporary forgiveness to the penitent; so, under the New Covenant God sending His own Son Jesus Christ to voluntarily pay for our sins past, present and future, grants eternal, permanent forgiveness to all who believe in Him once and for all time, therefore Jesus fulfilled the Law and unleashed the New Covenant sent down from heaven with the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Absolute truth.

When God sent His Son Jesus Christ to Pay IN FULL for our sins, it was not as an exchange or substitution for God commanded and demanded PAYMENT IN FULL knowing that only Jesus His sinless Son alone could and would absolutely do it.

SAY IT WITH ME HOLY PEOPLE: BECAUSE JESUS PAID IN FULL FOR ALL OF OUR SINS, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, GOD BROUGHT FORTH HIS NEW COVENANT ALSO KNOWN AS THE NEW TESTAMENT: IN WHICH HE DECLARES FOREVER:  Jer 31:34

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.  Heb 8:12; Heb 10:17. Eph 1:7In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 

Col 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

FORGIVENESS: freedom; pardon:—deliverance, forgiveness, liberty, remission,  release from bondage or imprisonment,

forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty.

REMEMBER THEIR SIN NO MORE: none, never to remember, recall, call to mind, never to be brought to remembrance, be remembered, be thought of, cease to cause to remember, to cause to be remembered, keep in remembrance, to mention, to record, to make a memorial, make remembrance with the intent to punish.

Our salvation is not on the lay-away plan Lord Jesus got the job done forever in His perfect sinless sacrifice of Himself to pay for our sins let us recall:  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.

ETERNAL REDEMPTION: without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be, without beginning, without end, never to cease, everlasting.

Paul keeps hammering away, this is a blood covenant that has obtained permanent forgiveness for all who believe. Our sins have been permanently taken away-abolished as though they never existed by the sinless blood of Jesus Christ: 1Jo 3:6Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

1Jo 5:18We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

What this means is that the Christian does not have to choose to sin, and there is no justification of anyone claiming salvation who willfully, deliberately, and unrepentantly chooses to sin.

The goal of the authentic Christian is not to get forgiven over and over again as those under the Law of Moses. Our forgiveness is complete and permanent through the atonement of Lord Jesus Christ.

Those Christians who in error insist upon begging God to forgive their sins per each sin frankly do not know  or likely do not trust in the power of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Human beings are stuck in the present, God is impervious to time as He is eternal -timeless.

God through Jesus Christ made all things including time of which He has allotted to every person a limited amount, according to His will. He Himself is limitless, and not bound by time which He made and will also end. By His power, He nullifies, better totally abolishes all sins of the believer past present and future. Therefore, He has no need of them, no record of them anymore, because He has totally removed them-taken them away forever. 

Jhn 1:29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world

Our goal or work as authentic Christians is to believe what Jesus has done for us forever in forgiving all of our sins, past, present and future. Therefore, we faithfully repent/renounce and steadfastly turn away from any and all sins to God, as evidence of our salvation, to lead lives of holiness before God and men, because we can through the Holy Spirit given to every believer through faith in Jesus Christ. 

The Bible has an overabundance of teachings on how the Christian is to live before God in an absolute sense, not a tentative sense.

Some might say, we are only flesh, God understands we are weak and prone to sin. NO, God says we are spirit-of His spirit and commands all believers to be like Him: 1Pe 1:15

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

1Pe 1:16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Col 2:11

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Eph 4:22;  Col 3:8;  Col 3:9.

Through daily rigorously practicing aligning our will with the will of God out of love and faith in Him we become more and more like Him over time-living by the standard of Christ not of the world or our old man or old nature: See works of the flesh vs the spirit.

Love and truth forever, serola

Thu, Oct 12th - 3:32PM

Sat, Oct 7th - 12:32PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11 VS 20-26

Brothers and sisters, let us, the holy family of God, His children and priests, whole- heartedly bless, praise and thank our God the Son of God Jesus Christ Saviour/High Priest, The Word of Life, (1Jo 1:1), who has given us eternal life, love, truth, hope, peace, power for living holy- as He baptizes all believers with our indwelling God the Holy Spirit, and has given us to God our Father, who has given us His Son.

Love, peace, power, and multitudes of blessings be to you most precious and dear brothers and sisters. I pray that the light of Lord Jesus Christ will perpetually fill you with the joy, and truth of the Holy Ghost as you rest confidently with all assurances in the arms of God our Father who is blessed for ever more.

Let us, dearly beloveds, keep going over this again and again, patiently, relentlessly, carefully, because we always have new believers and some long -time believers too who need our help to understand and grasp the eternal foundational truth of the principles of the doctrine of Christ. No mere human being ever had a place on the cross, all we had coming was death and condemnation from the righteous God who hates sin. Therefore, Jesus was never a substitute on the cross for us or any mere human being.

In this we know and understand that Christ alone took His place on the cross, He was the only one sinless and acceptable to God to do so.

We also know with absolute certainty from scripture that Christ’s death on the cross was not an exchange as some teach in ignorance. Jesus Christ in offering Himself, paid God in full for our sins with His own sinless body and blood.

After Christ died, He descended spiritually into Paradise, (Luk 23:43), and freed the rightous dead with Father Abraham, next He went into hades the dwelling place of torment for the evil dead where the devil had charge of. There He mocked openly and beat the demons, stomped on the devil’s head and took away from the devil the keys of death and hell, afterwards, on the third day Jesus rose physically to life again forever: Rev 1:18

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

God commands and enables us all to be on the same page, holy people, in correctly understanding and interpreting the scriptures, this is the only way we can obtain the unity of the body as God wills.

It is no surprise when we see some churches post what they in ignorance believe online, in their church bulletins, and teachings that Christ’s went to the cross as a “substitution” for us that, His shed blood and death to make atonement for us was an “exchange”.

Think, dearly beloveds, about someone going to the store with an old garment, getting a new garment from the rack, and when asked for payment gives the cashier the old garment in exchange for the new. We know that cashier will most certainly carefully explain to the person that payment in full is expected/required to obtain the new garment and old clothing cannot be used to obtain the new garment.

Now if that person insists on leaving the store with the new garment, having left the old garment in its place, most likely the cashier will report the garment as stolen, and call the police to report the theft.

When the thief is caught, he or she will be charged accordingly. Their sincere personal opinion of thinking they were right will not matter to the judge when they are tried for theft and charged accordingly.

We know the everlasting truth from the Bible that Jesus Paid in full for our sins. His shed blood and death to make atonement for the whole world was not an exchange: Act 20:28;  Eph 1:14; 1Co 6:20For ye are bought with a price…

1Co 7:23Ye are bought with a price… Jesus Christ is the Head and the Owner of the Church with God the Father.

Throughout the whole Bible the words purchased and bought are absolutely defined as that which is paid for in its entirety, owing nothing and never as an exchange.

I am thankful to our Lord Jesus, and all the pastors, elders, teachers, brothers and sisters, who loved me enough to correct me whenever they found ignorance in me. Really this is a part of our duties to minister the Word spiritually to one another as well as in earthly needs, as God commands.

Fully understanding, believing these basic principles of the doctrine of Christ moves us forward towards complete maturity as we learn and embrace the deeper tenets of faith, of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.

God is ABSOLUTELY ETERNAL: Deu 33:27; Gen 21:33;  Isa 40:28;  Rom 16:26; Heb 1:8;  Heb 7:25.   

The New Covenant is ABSOLUTELY ETERNAL:  Heb 13:20;

Redemption/Salvation is ABSOLUTELY ETERNAL: Heb 5:9; Heb 9:1;.

Eternal life is ABSOLUTELY ETERNAL: Jhn 3:16;  Jhn 3:36;  Rom 6:22;

His inheritance is ABSOLUTELY ETERNAL:  Heb 9:15; 1Pe 1:4.

When we understand fully, brothers and sisters, that the Triune God, His Covenant, salvation, promises, inheritance, in fact all of His works towards believers, as well as unbelievers are set absolutely eternal, perpetually, forever in Christ, we will not be moved by the ignorant who believe they can be lost, nor by the heretic who willfully, deliberately corrupts the everlasting truth of scripture seeking to make believers lose their faith and trust in God,  when it is absolutely impossible for God to lie: Jhn 10:5; 2Jo 1:10-11.

Some might say how are we to know the ignorant from the heretic? The righteous will receive the truth and trust in it, the wicked heretic never will and will go on to blaspheme more and more.

When we dig deep into the eternal truth of God, let us eat all of the Word to get Him deep down in our spirits, minds, and hearts consciously, deliberately, rigorously as a way of life as natural as breathing then we shall be full grown able to eat strong spiritual meat: Heb 5:14

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

By reason of use: a habit whether of body or mind; a power acquired by custom, practice, use.

It greatly aids our faith, holy brethren, to believe and accept the truth of the New Covenant as God commands all men: It is ABSOLUTELY FINISHED. Jhn 4:34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.  (Jhn 19:30).

Saints (G40 hagios) let us recollect that Paul the apostle has gone through the entire scriptures as a whole from beginning to end in dealing topically with some problems he found among these Hebrew believers. Firstly, he found although they were saved and had previously been taught the scriptures, they were slothful and did not retain any of it, therefore did not teach or study it. Secondly, he found they were still spiritual babies on milk, thirdly he found they had zero teachers, and finally he found they were tired of waiting faithfully under trials and wanted their reward from God without delay-showing they lacked patience.

Even though it was in ignorance, it's easy to see the dangerous level that these Hebrew believers sank to in spiritual decline that caused them to not  grow or attain maturity because they had been slothful in failing to retain the gospel message- our spiritual food from God: Mat 4:4; Jhn 6:51; Jhn 6:57.

We want to continue to focus on where Paul is leading these Hebrew believers and us too-none of our knowledge has any meaning to God without faith, that is powered by and works through love. Loving God above all else is the evidence that our faith is strong, which pleases God, and causes us to bear the fruit of patience in our trials.

Heb11:20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.  Heb 11:21By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. 

Isaac and Jacob blessed their sons, although they lived in their present time, they could see by faith that future coming eternal kingdom of God and His Christ.

Heb 11:22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

We have the back story of Joseph, he spent his formative years to the day of his death in the fabulous luxury of Egypt, second in power to Pharaoh himself. He had riches, power, authority. He married the daughter of the priest of On and had two sons by her in Egypt: Gen 41:45;  Gen 46:20.

Nevertheless, despite living daily for many years in the heart of a monstrous idolatrous culture, where even the Pharoahs were worshipped as God, and his own wife had to be an idolater too, yet he remained faithful to God, even teaching his kids and grandkids who the only true God is:  Gen 50:23.

Joseph saw the true God and His Christ and did not miss a beat in being faithful even to death, because he loved God above all the treasures of Egypt and all that he had. Therefore, he commanded Israel to take his bones with them to the promised land as he knew without a doubt it was coming.

Heb 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. 

Brothers and sisters, think about Egypt enslaving the Hebrews and then demanding that its slaves kill all their male children upon birth. In a sense, dearly beloveds, God gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of the savage mind of a cruel, brutal, ruthless, despotic Pharaoh. He was looking to his future too. His Hebrew slaves were having too many babies- more than the Egyptians. In his evil mind he had to destroy those babies who could grow up to become future enemies within-a threat to the continuation of his kingdom into the future.

Despite Pharaoh’s commands Moses’ parents feared God not mere men and contrived a way to save their son, seeing not only that the child was very handsome, but understood by faith in an idolatrous nation that also worshipped beauty, God would use him for a greater purpose. Moses’ parents knew by faith that God would have the last word AND THE FINAL SAY in their lives not a mere man which Pharaoh was in their eyes in comparison to Almighty God.

WE KNOW, BRETHREN, GOD WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE FINAL SAY IN THE LIVES OF HIS PEOPLE, NEVER MERE MEN.

Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

Moses’ story is rags to riches to rags in material goods, but abundant in steadfast faith. Moses’ had been taken in as an infant by Pharaoh’s daughter. Unbeknown to her his own biological mother was selected to be his wet nurse and caretaker under the very nose of Pharoah even in his house, (see EX. 2 for the back story of Moses).

Moses had been raised in fabulous luxury, he had the best food, slept in the best beds, dressed richly with the finest clothing in the most idolatrous and sex crazed nation at that time. He had off the chart male beauty, he had power, he had great wealth, he had the highest social/royal status, and his supposed grandpa was Pharaoh.

Nevertheless, Moses in adulthood fearlessly claimed his true heritage as a Hebrew. He boldly refused to allow himself to be associated with or to be called the son of the daughter of Pharaoh. God does not give us any information on how Pharaoh’s daughter took the rejection by Moses whom she considered her son for all those years.  

Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;Heb 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Moses’ heart was greatly touched by the affliction and sufferings of his people. He chose to suffer with them, and turned his back on the stunning over the top sinful pleasures of Egypt and counted its fabulous wealth as worthless trinkets, in comparison to the eternal, magnificent, eternal riches of God and His Christ.