The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXX

Hebrews 4:2a
For to us was the Gospel preached as well as to them:…"

Now we have to be careful here. What does the word Gospel always mean? Good news! Now how far back in human history does good news go? Well all the way back to Genesis chapter 3. But how far back does Paul’s Gospel go? Back to Paul’s ministry, naturally, because it’s his Gospel, that was only given to him. Alright, so now, if we look at this word Gospel as good news, then all of the garbage just falls away and we’re left with nothing but the bare Truth. Which John tells us came through Jesus, where you ask, well in Johns gospel, the good news of Jesus in chapter 1 and verses 14 and 17 but also 4:

John 1:14
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

Now a word of caution is due here because John is writing after the Lord's ascension he declares that which Paul had been given and that had been spoken first in the Psalms and that is that Jesus is now the "only begotten of the Father". (Hebrews 1:5, 5:5 and Psalm 2:7) Don't miss this as it is very important in scripture and for our learning of the Truth.

John 1:17
"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

So we are to receive both Grace and Truth through Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Now the next is one which many don't see or when they do they don't comprehend and it is in verse 4:

John 1:4
"In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

To get an understanding we have to go back to Genesis chapter 1 and verses 1 through 3 which says:

Genesis 1:1-3
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

Here's where we find the Spirit of God first introduced and who is this Spirit none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what does John tell us of this Jesus well first that in Him is Life Divine Life the power to reproduce life or to bestow life. And when that is seen in verse two of Genesis as the Spirit that moved upon the waters and brought Light and Life to the earth's surface to cause it to be able to produce life when it was spoken to by the same Spirit. This is the same light and life which brought forth the plant and animal life as found in verses 20 through 25 what we call nature. Then John speaking of in verse 4 tells us that this Light and Life is the light of all men and this we pick up now in verses 26 and 27. Genesis 1:26-27 "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Because He is the same Life which God breathed in Genesis 2 and verse 7 where we find God making a body in which to house His divine creation for it to walk and live in this world and it says: Genesis 2:7 "The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." This is where life meets with Life and man was formed or the spirit put on flesh just as it is recorded elsewhere here the Lord Jesus put on flesh in John 1:14 quoted above. Man was first a divine being housed in flesh and had communion, fellowship with his creator before woman was removed and formed from his rib. This is what John here is revealing so all mankind knows of God but not all mankind is known by God or has this relationship restored. It is restored only through Christ Jesus and this is the Good News.


And so, when the good news was presented in Genesis 3:15, what was it? Let’s go back and look. Here we have good news, but not the Gospel of the Grace of God. Now again its not in the exact phrase as the Gospel of Grace, even the new covenant as found in Jeremiah chapter 31 is not identified as of Grace or so called. It’s through Paul's Gospel that we must believe that Christ died and rose from the dead. It’s good news! My, it’s good news. Genesis chapter 3. Most of you should know what this verse says, the Lord is dealing with Satan, right after the fall of man, as they have just eaten of the forbidden fruit. And what’s the good news? That God is going to defeat Satan. And that there's a seed within woman which will one day spring upon him and defeat him. But and here's the rest of the story, this same seed of within all mankind because man was first created a spirit being as revealed above and will one day become a spirit being again. Which the Good News is all about. Now that’s good news! Alright, look at it. Where the Lord says to Satan:


Genesis 3:15a
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, (who’s in control here? God is.) and between your seed and her seed; (well, Who’s her seed? Jesus Christ!) it (the seed of the woman, Jesus the Christ) shall bruise your head,…"

Now how do we kill a serpent? On the head. And so, what’s the implication here? That one day the Seed of the woman, Jesus the Christ, the Light, Truth and Grace of God, would defeat and put out of commission, Satan. And what is that? That’s Good News! It’s the only thing that the human race had left. Adam and Eve had now eaten, and the race has fallen, and Satan is seemingly glowing in his victory. But, God comes back and says, "No, I’ve got good news. I’m going to provide a way back into fellowship with the Creator." Man is one day going to be restored to fellowship with Me as if this hadn't been and as though this break or separation has never happened.


And so here we have the first instance of good news. Now let’s go up a little further to Genesis chapter 12. We're skipping a bunch of them in between here. But, here in Genesis chapter 12. Oh, some more good news! Now we don’t ordinarily think of it as Gospel, but it was. My, we don’t know what else it could have been so far as Abram was concerned. It was Gospel! It was good news!! And what was it? Let’s look at it:

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXIX

Acts 24:25b
"…Felix trembled, (that’s how much he considered it and he answered what? Paul, I’m ready to believe? No, but rather) answered, Go your way for this time;…"

What does that tell us? Felix hadn’t crossed it off. He hadn’t just adamantly told Paul - take off! I’ll never listen to you again. But he was postponing it. See? Postponing it, and that is just exactly what Paul is warning these Jews and Hebrews. Don’t postpone it for today, until tomorrow. See that’s the word throughout these chapters. Today, harden not your hearts as they did, and as Felix did. And see, every time that Felix would listen to Paul, what happened to his heart condition? Softer or harder? Well, harder. And now, read on and we’ll see what evidently happened to this man.


Acts 24:25b
"…Go your way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for you."

In other words, when we're more in line to step out of our wicked lifestyle and become a believer. When a more convenient season comes along, I’ll call for you. And then verse 26. On top of that, his wicked mind was looking for a bribe.


Acts 24:26a
"He (Felix) hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him; wherefore he sent for him the oftener,…"


So it wasn’t just once. Not even twice. Several times this Roman authority reasoned of righteousness and judgment to come. And every time, no doubt, his heart became harder and he says, "Well Paul, if you’re not ready to pay for your way out of here, then be gone." But now the reason we know that Felix never came to the place of redemption, he put it off and put it off, is because of verse 27. What’s the first word?


Acts 24:27
"But (he never responded) after the two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room; and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound."


And he did, you see, as far as we know, he came short. He never did step in to that which he saw was the right way and we think we see this throughout all of human history. How that mankind is either absolutely destitute of spiritual insight, or they play around like a cat with the mouse. Until finally, what happens invariably? That little mouse slips away. And man ends up where they did not believe it was possible a waiting their doom, eternally separated from God.



We had an old cat who had done that same thing just the other day. He had a mouse and played with it and played with it and I almost was getting frantic. Kill the poor thing! But, what do they do? They fool around and they fool around with it, and all of a sudden it gets away. Well, you see, that’s what happens to many people with God’s plan of salvation. They play around with it - oh, they consider it, they talk about it but they will never give in and accept God’s saving Grace and consequently, they come short of it. Well, that’s not God’s fault. God has done all He can do. And you want to remember, God never forces His salvation on anybody. It’s a matter of the free will, as God inspires us with the Spirit. He in fact requires us to surrender our free will into His will, so that by our obedience to Him by this action He is then able to see us and to hear us for this first real time. What we'll find out later is that we've gained more liberty than we ever had as a sinner, chained to Satan.


Alright, verse 2 here Paul continues the thought.


Hebrews 4:2a
"For to us was the Gospel preached, as well as to them:…"

Now don’t lose sight of our pronouns here. Who are the "them?" Israel at Kadesh-barnea. See that’s our whole idea of the lesson. Don’t forget Israel at Kadesh-barnea, when they had all the promises of God to go in and take Canaan without a drop of sweat or losing a drop of blood and because of unbelief turned away. Alright, Paul is using it again.


Hebrews 4:2a
"For to us (today in this Age of Grace under Paul’s Apostleship) was the Gospel preached."

Well, that’s easy enough to understand. We all know from Paul’s Gospel, that Christ died, was buried and rose from the dead, that that’s the means of salvation, our being identified in Christ during His taking of our place in this action. When we by way of inspiration of revelation see yourselves hung on the tree with Jesus then laid to rest, then raised the third day and then later to have ascended in Christ where we now sit in Him in the Holiest place on the very Throne of God at His right hand. The key is “IN Christ, IN Whom, and IN Him.” We have put away the world and the power of it to hold us, then daily we receive His Grace in our time of need.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXVIII

Now you know, we can almost stop with every word in Hebrews, can’t we? And we have been lately. What’s a promise? Well a promise is something that God has backed with His Omnipotence, with His Sovereignty and yes, with His Grace. And when God makes a promise, we can trust it. Because God will not lie. God will not play games. And so here again we have the evidence that God has given promises, promises, promises, not only to Israel but to the whole human race. So he says, let us wake up and be serious and take note:


Hebrews 4:1
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise (one of the promises of God) being left of us of entering into His rest that any of you should seem to come short of it."


What do you suppose he’s driving at? You know, so many of us had a criteria that we thought people had to go through to be genuinely saved. And unless they went through our circumscribed criteria, we had doubts. And we're sure that almost every group looks at some of these things this way. They’ve got their own idea of what God expects a person to do before God can save him.


And listen, God isn’t going to set up a whole bunch of restrictive rules and regulations for a sinner to go through before He’ll save him. God will save a person with, I suppose, so little going to him that most of us would say, hey, he could never be saved, and that’s exactly what Paul is saying. Now look at it again.


Hebrews 4:1b
"…lest, a promise being left us…"

Now if something has been left to you, what does that mean? It’s still yours. It hasn’t yet slipped away from you, it’s still there for you to cash in on. And so this is what he’s appealing. Lest some of these people have been wavering and yes they’re considering what Paul has got to offer, but they’re still being drawn by all the ramifications of legalism and Judaism. Paul says, God hasn’t given up on you. God hasn’t yet crossed you off. So why do you want to cross yourself off?


We know, many of us have heard sermons, I know we have, more than once, where a preacher will get up and he will just make a horrible example of someone who just stood out on a public square and shook his fist in God’s face and cursed God, and then they like to make a great big sensational event of it. And how that thirty minutes later, he was violently killed. Well, that may make good preaching, but it’s not Scripture. God never gives up on even a man who will shake his fist and curse God. You know why? Because even where sin abounds and that would be sinful, no doubt about it, but where that sin abounds, what’s even greater? God’s Grace! And so don’t you ever believe that kind of stuff that God gives up on a sinner. No, God never gives up until this soul departs. And so, this is again what Paul is saying, don’t you forget that God has not given up on you. There is still a part and parcel of His promises that are enough for you to latch on to and still escape that wrath to come. Alright, now let’s move on.


Hebrews 4:1b
"…let us fear, lest a promise being left (that’s still there to take a hold of) that of you (even the worst) should come (what?) short of it."


Now what’s the danger when someone tarries and lingers and fails to latch on to the promise of Salvation or the New Covenant? Well let us give you a good example. Come back with us to Acts 24, and we’ll just start with verse 24. Here, Paul, of course, is dealing with Felix.


Acts 24:24-25a
"After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ." (now verse 25.) And as he reasoned (Felix did. Just a rank unbeliever and as he reasoned) of righteousness, (in other words, God’s saving grace) temperance, and judgment to come,…"

What does that tell us? Paul laid out the whole picture. Paul didn’t refrain from telling him what his doom was going to be if he did not come into salvation. And so he reasoned of all these things that Paul had covered. The judgment to come.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXVII

Romans 4:4a
"Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt."

He’s speaking of a religious person one who practices the works of the required demands under the Law. See, that is what we are dealing with in Hebrews. They were tied to their religion. What did their religion demand? Temple worship, the Sacrifices, keeping of the Feast Days. and yes, their tithes and offerings. All those things were part and parcel of their religion. But now, to him that worked the reward isn’t reckoned of Grace, but of debt. So anytime a religious person says, "I’m doing the best I can. I’m putting God in debt to me!" He owes me. Now, if somebody owes you, he’s in debt to you. We don’t care how you cut it. If he owes you, he’s in debt to you. Alright, that’s what the religionist (a bigoted person) is doing. He’s going to work, and work, and work and then point the finger at God and say, "Now, you owe me. You’ve got to pay off. You’ve got to let me into your heaven." But it isn’t going to work that way because the next verse says:


Romans 4:5a
"But to him that works not,…"

See now, Israel again back to Kadesh, and we can’t help but to go back there. Israel at Kadesh, how much were they going to have to do to enjoy the Promised Land? Nothing! Just walk in and enjoy it. Isn’t that something? And they rejected it because of unbelief. Alright now, here we come again.


Romans 4:5a
"But to him that works not, but believes…" That’s the other word for trust and faith. That when we believe what God has said and we believe Him who justifies the ungodly, not the person who is worthy of it.


Romans 4:5
"But to him that works not, but believes, on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."


Let’s go back once again to Hebrews chapter 3 and we think that maybe we will slip into chapter 4. Alright, chapter 3 again verse 19. Boy, we want to hear it in our sleep.


Hebrews 3:19
"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."


So then, they entered not because of unbelief. Nothing else. Unbelief. Now see, had they been able to believe God and if they would have gone in as a nation of believers, do you see what God could have done? Oh, He could have blessed them. they would have entered His rest. They could have been a fabulous nation of people. But instead they had to go back out and die and their carcasses rotted in the wilderness, for forty years. Now,let’s look at the Nation of Israel with a better opportunity and that was when Christ came in His first advent. It’s almost a repeat. The Nation could have had everything. They could have had the Kingdom, and they could have had the King. He offered Himself. But what did they do? They crucified Him and God in His love and mercy came back and again, just like the forty years of wilderness, what did God do with the Nation of Israel through that forty years of the Book of Acts from His crucifixion until finally the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. We have almost a repeat performance. They rejected the offer of everything that only asked for their trust. And, as a result they went through the forty years of the Book of Acts which culminated then with the destruction of the Temple, the city and the nation.


He was God the Son. He was the Creator. He was the Sustainer. And He was also, of course, the Redeemer. Not just of the Hebrews but of all mankind. And consequently Paul uses the verse that He tasted death for every man, not just the Hebrew. But for the whole world.

As we’ve come through these first three chapters, this has been the emphasis, of Who God the Son really is and what He has done and how even we, as non-Jews, must understand. Now, as in chapter 3, the Apostle is using the horrible dilemma of Israel’s refusing to go into the Land of Promise at Kadesh-Barnea, in particular, when as we all now know the account, in unbelief. What God said they could do, Israel said, no we can’t. We guess if there was any one act of disobedience in all of Israel’s history that perturbed God the most, that was it. They could have fallen as they did at Mount Sinai into idol worship around that golden calf. They went into various other times of rank disobedience, but nothing pops up over and over in Scripture as an example of abject disobedience brought about by unbelief as Kadesh-Barnea.


We have to remind ourself and others that Paul is the master builder and as such he has built upon the foundation of Christ the cornerstone now crucified and resurrected as Lord and our redeemer bringing us to Newness of Life (spiritually a live in Christ) and through this life to our salvation and hope of glory. Paul as the master builder set the plumb line to the structure of which we have been placed by God into this structure or framework, of God's temple or the spiritual Body of Christ. Which had been held as a secret hid in God and which Jesus could only allude to during His earthly ministry to Israel. As He was bound under the covenants to stay within there framework and the Law (the law of commandment as given to Adam and the Levitical Law as given to Moses for the Hebrew only) and prophets.


So this is constantly brought up in Scripture, as an example not only to Israel, but to everyone of us, that there is nothing that God detests like unbelief. He can forgive a lot of things. He can, you might say, in His Grace, put up with a lot of the wickedness and the unbelief in other areas, but when it comes to abject unbelief of something that is so easily understood as our Gospel of His Grace and the New Covenant of Grace is, then the wrath of God is kindled. And so when we stop and realize that the vast majority of the human race is headed for the lake of fire, don’t blame God. A lot of people do. They say, "How can a Holy God send people to a place like that?" Listen, God didn’t send them. They chose to go. And how did they choose to go? By refusing to believe something so simple as Paul’s beautiful Gospel, that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and all we have to do is believe it for salvation.


And so this has been the whole emphasis now, especially in chapter 3 and even as we come in to chapter 4. Don’t forget what Israel did at Kadesh-barnea, as they failed to believe what God told them. Alright, verse 1. So it starts out with one of Paul’s favorite words, "therefore." Because of what we’ve already covered in these first three chapters.


Hebrews 4:1a
"Let us therefore fear,…"
Now that’s not the kind of a fear that just simply sends us out of our common sense. It rather, is a fear that makes us stop and take notice. This is a fear that makes us stop and really listen to what God has said. And so he said:

Hebrews 4:1a
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise…"

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXVI

II Peter 1:15-16a
"Moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. (remember, Peter too is writing to the Jews of his day more than to us Gentiles. Now watch this, this is the verse that I had on my mind.) For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,…"

And we know that is exactly what the scoffers call this Book? We read again just awhile back, where someone was ridiculing the Bible as nothing more than a bunch of campfire stories concocted while the Israelites were in antiquity and they brought all these things to mind as they were sitting around their ancient campfires. But Peter says, "no, these are not cunningly devised fables."


II Peter 1:16b-17
"…when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father, honour and glory, (now he is speaking of the Transfiguration.) when there came such a voice to him from the excellent Glory, This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Now remember, that was on the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter, James and John were met with Moses and Elijah. And God spoke from Heaven. Alright now verse 18. Peter says, "This voice which came from Heaven, we heard!" Proof positive that God is real. He is the Living God as we saw earlier.


II Peter 1:18-19
"And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. (The Mount of Transfiguration. Now verse 19) We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your own hearts:"

In other words, Peter is speaking of a Spiritual enlightening, that we can grasp these things. We can believe them and we don’t have to doubt them because we understand that God has proven Himself over and over by fulfilling prophetic statements and more. The more is that He is still speaking to us through His Son, the day star which has dawned in our heart. But to whom does this apply, is the question or the mystery. Now verse 20.



II Peter 1:20
"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation,"

In other words, we don’t just take one little tidbit here and pull it out and do whatever we want with it. We have to compare Scripture with Scripture. We have to use the whole to see the part. In order to understand the parts or pieces and the layers as an onion. Yehovah means the ever revealing one or progressive revelation of who “I am.” (found in Exodus 3:14) He does this by speaking to us through His Son much like he did with Peter (Matthew 16:16, John 11:27).


II Peter 1:21
"For the prophecy (the Word of God,) came not in old time by the will of man: (they didn’t sit around a campfire and concoct these things.) but holy (or set apart) men of God spake as they were moved (or inspired) by the Holy Ghost."

That’s how our Book came together. This is not cunningly devised fables. It is the Word of God and consequently God expects us to believe it. Alright now then we're going to take us back, we used the verse some time ago. We're going to bring you back to Romans chapter 4. We are going to look at Abraham for just a second, because we're not losing sight of what we’ve been looking at in Hebrews 3 and we will again in Hebrews 4. How that Israel at Kadesh-Barnea, with the full opportunity of entering into the land of Canaan, a rest of sorts, as they didn’t have to work, and they didn’t have to fight. All they had to do was take it by what? Faith! Again by passing through the waters, might be good to point this out that they passed through waters twice and the spiritual meaning is? Believe it and move in and take it. But, they couldn’t do it. Alright now, Abraham is just the opposite. Now verse 1 of chapter 4 of Romans.


Romans 4:1-2
"What shall we say then that Abraham our Father, as pertaining to the flesh, (that is the Father of the Jewish race) has found? For if Abraham were justified by works, (see that is what all religion demands. Religion will always give you a set of works) he has whereof to glory; but not before God."

If that was possible, he could get to Heaven and say, "Look God, what I did, how I deserve to be here." But he’ll never be able to do that before God. Now verse 3.


Romans 4:3a
"For what say the scripture? (What does the Word of God say? The Word of God says) Abraham believed God,…"

It doesn’t say that Abraham went out and sacrificed. Doesn’t say that Abraham went out and did this or that or some other thing. All Abraham did was took God at His Word, plus nothing! He believed God, he trusted Him. Now then reading on:


Romans 4:3b
"…and it was counted unto him for righteousness."

God declared him righteous because he could believe. Now, it is no different today. The moment a sinner believes, God accounts him as righteous. But, at the same time God empowers him to live righteously. That’s where we get the ability and the power to live a saints life. You can’t do it in the flesh. It is impossible and none of us can. But God empowers us and if we draw on that power, then it is possible to depart from these things that the Bible calls iniquity and we, like Abraham, can walk as people of trust. Verse 4.

Romans 4:4a
"Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt."

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXV

But, we know one thing. It’s something to make us think, because you see we are in the same dilemma in Christendom today. We know, that’s like we kind of enjoy getting into some different denominations once in a while. Because you see, twenty or thirty years ago, we would probably have thought that none of those had the truth. But they do! We're finding that almost in any group you’ve got a certain number of people who have a true salvation. They love the Lord, and they love this Book. In other groups that you probably think, oh, they are all Christians, they’ve got no love for the Book nor for each other. So you see, we can’t judge. There is no way we can determine how many of that group are saved. We don’t know. Only God knows our heart and whether we're wholly His, that is with our wholeheart trusting in His faith.


We think this whole experience at Kadesh is a sobering experience because they were all lost, because they refused to go in because of unbelief? Was their trusting become Faith by way of its being exercised, coming through the Red Sea all become vain? We don’t think so. But we can’t do anything but speculate. We would never say that they were all lost or that they were all saved or that half of them were. We would like to think some of them were. Because even in Israel’s history when the nation, for the most part, was going down the tube and they were succumbing to idolatry. Did they all? We don’t think so. Even when Elijah said, "You know Lord, I am the only one left." But what did God say? "No Elijah, we have seven thousand left." Even though the vast majority of Israel followed in the words of Baal, yet seven thousand remained true to Yehovah or in English Jehovah. (point of interest the Hebrew alphabet did not have the letter “J”. That is why we use the letter "Y".)


And so, all up through Israel’s history, we're sure there were always a percentage of people who were aghast at what their leadership was doing. They were aghast at the gross immorality of the majority of people who were following pagan gods and goddesses. Then you know what we have to think? We are in the same boat today. We are getting more and more where the majority is now rejecting everything Biblical. We are seeing it, as it’s a culture war in America today, we know it is. And here we are as believers, getting smaller and smaller percentage-wise, and one day God’s going to judge this nation like He has every other nation that turns against Him, so what’s our only hope? Our only hope is that the Lord will return before that day comes. Because it’s coming. We were just rereading the Church Age portion at the end of the book of "Enoch" about his vision of these later days as the LORD the Spirit had revealed it to him. Ya! know its spot on, no wonder Jesus quoted from this book throughout His earthly ministry to Israel.


Even though we have a percentage as Abraham had when he bargained with God over Sodom and Gomorrah. What did Abraham say? "Now, Lord if there’s ten in Sodom, would you spare it?" Yeah. But He didn’t have ten and so God destroyed it. So here’s the sobering thought: if these Israelites who came out of Egypt by faith through the experience of the Red Sea with water piled up on both sides and yet were able to come up here to Kadesh with nothing any harder to believe that we can see, than to walk into the Promised Land. Go in and take the land of Canaan. They couldn’t do it because of unbelief. And they wept. They cried all night and then, horror of horrors, what did they ask to do. Send us back to Egypt. Send us back to the slave yards. Oh, that is almost beyond human comprehension. But here again God had shown this all to Enoch as he has written of it before the flood.


So, here is the constant lesson in these two chapters of Hebrews. Don’t forget what can happen to people when their hearts are hardened by unbelief, and when they can no longer trust the Word of God. And see, we have said it, we think America can be, to a certain degree, a parallel of the Nation of Israel. We have been singularly blessed as a nation. No other nation on earth has enjoyed the Spiritual and material blessings that we have in America. But does that mean that God will never, never change blessing us? We don’t think so. We think the day is coming when God is going to have to come up and judge America for the responsibilities that we have walked under foot. They are the rules and the penalty for disobedience of this Grace Gospel and the New Covenant of Grace given to us to adhere to. Why? Because we're guilty of walking on the Blood of that Covenant and making a mockery of Him and it. We stand in the same condition as Israel, in denial of the Lord the Spirit and His Covenant.


And you know we're always rehearsing our Founding Fathers. My when they got at loggerheads, and they had some big problems to overcome, and don’t think they didn’t. Number one was, how can the small states maintain a representation, like Massachusetts and Vermont and so forth, against the big states like Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia. And, boy, it was a tough one to crack. But, we've said it over and over, and we read it in a secular magazines, not in any religious magazine, but in a secular magazines. What did those men do when they got to the place that they just couldn’t make any more headway? They dismissed and went into prayer rooms. They got down on their knees, everyone of them and they prayed, that the God of Heaven would give them wisdom. That’s our heritage. That’s where we’ve come from.


And then today, they ridicule the concept that our President would even think to pray in the morning. We hope people realize that’s what they are doing. They are ridiculing him for it. When our Attorney General, John Ashcroft, tried to have a Bible Study, they ridicule him for it. Well, that’s exactly the way it got in Israel. Just go back and read some of the prophecies of Jeremiah and so forth. But now, our question is, were they all that steeped in unbelief? We don’t think so, but the minority of the believers had to suffer the results of the majority in their unbelief. And so, this is the constant reminder now then, as we look at it again in verse 17.


Hebrews 3:17a
"But with whom was He grieved those forty years?…"

While they were dying off in the wilderness, one commentary puts it, that they moved from place to place and the bones were just about covering the ground of where they left, as they were dying by the hundreds for forty years. See?


Hebrews 3:17b-18
"…was it not with them who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to him that believed not?"

It just repeats unbelief and repeats it and repeats it! The biggest tragedy for Israel, as well as for the human race in general, is unbelief. God says it and He expects us to believe it. And as we've said in an earlier part of this outline, He’s proven himself with fulfilled prophecy. No other book on earth can tell things a hundred years in advance, let alone 3 or 500. But this Book does. And it is being fulfilled to the jot and tittle and it will be fulfilled to the complete jot and tittle. And so here is why we can believe it. It has proven itself. Let’s see what Peter even calls it. In II Peter, chapter 1.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXIV

Matthew 16:16-17
"And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. (now look what Jesus said in verse 17.) Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven."

So how did Peter understand that Jesus was the Christ? God opened his understanding! See? God did it! And so never forget that true trust becomes by way of inspiration or revelation, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! Or we could say by the voice of God uttered eons ago. To see this look back at our word study listed just above. Its when we receive the illumination of revelation within ourselves that we know that we know.......and from within there is no changing or debate. We just KNOW!


Hebrews 3:15a
"While it is said, Today…"

Remember, I have been emphasizing this today so far as these people are concerned and so far as we are concerned is this Age of Grace. Where as that it isn’t limited to the Hebrews, and it’s not limited to the Gentile. It’s not limited to any one class of people but it’s for the whosoever will! Now verse 15 again.


Hebrews 3:15-16a
"While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard,…" In other words, when God spoke and said, "Go in and take the land. It’s waiting for you. I’ll drive the Canaanites out." Alright, to them that was the good news. That was all they needed to know, but they couldn’t believe it! Alright, so let’s finish the verse:


Hebrews 3:16b-17a
"…did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years?…"
Remember, when we first started here in this chapter, they came in eleven days, if we're not mistaken. Eleven days from Mt. Sinai (the mount of sin) to Kadesh and that eleven days stretched into what? Forty years! Why? Unbelief! Now we see for people today, unbelief is not going to be forty years, it’s going to be eternity lost and with no hope. Alright, so here is the warning.


Hebrews 3:15b-17a
"…Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned,…"

Remember what was their sin. It wasn’t the calf, the golden calf at Sinai. It wasn’t their gross immorality that they danced around that calf. But, what was their sin? Unbelief! God said they could take it and they said what? "No, we can’t." What did the spies say? "Oh, we are like grasshoppers in their sight. The cities are walled, and we can’t take them" And yet, they had the proof of the pudding when they brought back the grapes and everything else. And yet, in unbelief, they couldn’t buy what God had said. We can’t comprehend it. We just cannot comprehend it. But, see, this is the way it has been all the way up through human history. God told Adam and Eve in simplistic terms, "Don’t eat of that tree." That’s all, everything else was theirs. But, in a step of unbelief, the deceiver deceived, what did they do? They ate. And that brought sin and death into the whole human experience.


So, all of these things are just examples so that we can learn from them. It wasn’t their sin, as so far as their action. It was their unbelief, but what prompted their unbelief? Their lawlessness, they were sinners. Now remember, Israelites were just as much the offspring of Adam as we Gentiles. They’ve got the same old Adamic nature as we do, and that old Adamic nature is covetousness and lawlessness, and so it precipitated their unbelief. Now, we're going to just have to speculate here, and we certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. But we like to throw the question out just to make people stop and think. Now of all these children of Israel who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership, as they walked through that Red Sea, did any of them stay behind and say, "Well, I’m scared to death the water will come crashing down." Not that we know of. So what did that take to go through the Red Sea? Trust! Simple trust, when one stepped out they all stepped out moving forward as a unit.


Because, anybody with an ounce of sense would know that when that Red Sea water parted, and it must have parted a long ways, because three to four million people couldn’t go through a little canyon of a hundred or two hundred feet and do it in 24 hours. So that Red Sea must have opened, we think, for miles. Well, however much wider it was the higher the water had to be piled. Right? God piled it! You know He did! With invisible walls and dams to hold it. So what did it take to walk down between those walls of water? Trust. Had to. And they came up on the other side as redeemed, bought back people. Every one of them! Thereby being baptized into Moses' ministry by walking through on dry ground, passing through the separated waters. This is a simple illustration of a spiritual reality or Truth.


Alright, now then we follow them on down to Mt. Sinai and they come under the Levitical Law (not the ten commandments as they are a moral code of conduct with the Beatitudes) and even in spite of the golden calf experience, here they come under Moses’ leadership/ministry. The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and they encamp at Kadesh. Then the nation says, "We can’t do it," with the exception of Joshua and Caleb and Moses, of course. Now our question is. Were all those Israelites lost? Some of them? What do you think? You can’t give us an answer, because we don’t think any of us have got one. But, it is sobering to think about. Or were they all saved because they came out of Egypt by Faith. We don’t know. We haven’t the answer.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXIII

Romans 10:14b
"…and how shall they believe in Him of who they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?" We know the Greek has a better definition, we think its, proclaimer. Someone that proclaims the Truth. How can they hear without a proclaimer? Now verse 15.


Romans 10:15-16a "And how shall they preach, except they be sent? (now Who is involved? Well, God. The Holy Spirit, see?) as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach (or proclaim) the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel…."


Regardless of what good news it was. Now, remember, when Abraham believed God, He didn’t believe the Gospel as we understand it. He didn’t believe that Christ would die and be buried and raised from the dead. How could he? It hadn’t happened. But, he believed what God said. And what did God tell him? "Leave Ur and I will make of you a great nation." And, Abraham, in Romans 4 says, believed God! That’s all! He believed God! And what did God do? Called him a righteous man. Just on the basis of his trust. That’s where we get our little cliche "Faith + Nothing!" It all began with Abram/Abraham. It dropped out of sight for centuries, but now in the Age of Grace, it comes back again. And we, like Abraham, are saved by trusting His faithfulness + nothing! So, how do we hear it? Well, we have to have someone proclaim it. We have to have the Holy Spirit behind it. Alright, now then, verse 17. Here is the answer to our dilemma. This is the place for the key upon which Jesus said that His Church would be built and Peter received the inspiration by way of revelation, the faith of Christ. (Galatians 2:16 and Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16, 3:22, Revelation 14:12)


Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
So by trust in the Truth, or just, taking God at His Word, comes our hearing. We’ve got to hear it to understand it. That’s why we’ve got this Book. That’s why God gave it to us. That’s why we don’t have to put your Bible on the shelf and say well, "I’ll just wait for the preacher to tell me." No! You may have to have someone explain some of these things to you which is pertinent but we’ve got the Word of God in your hand. Search the Scriptures, and see if these things are true.


Lets stop here a moment and look at the word "hear":
Strong's Greek number G189 with a base G191 we'll look at the base word: akouō
Thayer Definition:
1) to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf
2) to hear
2b) to attend to, consider what is or has been said
2c) to understand, perceive the sense of what is said
3) to hear something
3a) to perceive by the ear what is announced in one’s presence
3b) to get by hearing, learn (Matthew 11:25-30(29)
3c) a thing comes to one’s ears, to find out, learn
3d) to give ear to a teaching or a teacher
3e) to comprehend, to understand
Part of Speech: verb


One more word for us to consider Word of God: rhēma
Strong's Greek number G4487 form the base of G4483
Thayer Definition:
1) that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word
1a) any sound produced by the voice and having definite meaning
1b) speech, discourse
1b1) what one has said
1c) a series of words joined together into a sentence (a declaration of one’s mind made in words)
1c1) an utterance
1c2) a saying of any sort as a message, a narrative
1c2a) concerning some occurrence
2) subject matter of speech, thing spoken of
2a) so far forth as it is a matter of narration
2b) so far as it is a matter of command
2c) a matter of dispute, case at law (Jeremiah 31:34)


Alright, so verse 17 again.

Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
And it’s only the Word of God that can bring salvation to the human race. And again, I guess we should use that verse that we've referred to many times over in Acts. Acts chapter 16, and Paul is up there in the area of Northern Greece - today’s Macedonia, which is in the news again every day. He’s up in Northern Macedonia, in the city of Philippi. Now verse 14, and we think it is apropos for every believer to pray the same thing that we do, on the basis of this verse. Lord, give us Lydias. Alright, here it is.

Acts 16:14
"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, (see, she had a certain amount of religion, but she didn’t have salvation) heard us; whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul."

Now analyze that verse. Had not the Lord opened her heart, even a man like the Apostle Paul - would he have gotten through to her? No way. Great preacher, evangelist,and missionary that he was, had the Lord not opened her heart, she would have been just as lost the next day as she was the day before. But, God intervened and opened her heart. Let’s go back to Matthew 16. Alright and here we have Jesus dealing with the Twelve. And, we have Peter’s confession of his trusting by an inward knowing. Matthew 16 verse 16.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXII

Hebrews 3:14 "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."

We're going to step aside just here to share a thought from Andrew Murray that we believe just goes well here and we quote: “The greatest stumbling-block in the way of victory over prayerlessness is the secret feeling that we shall never obtain the blessing of being delivered from it. Often have we put forth effort in this direction, but in vain. Old habit and the power of the flesh, our surroundings with their attractions, have been too strong for us. What good is it to attempt that which our heart assures us is out of our reach? The change needed in the entire life is too great and too difficult. If the question is put: 'Is a change possible?' our sighing heart says: 'Alas, for me it is entirely impossible!' Do you know why that reply comes? It is simply because you have received the call to prayer as the voice of Moses and as a command of the law. Moses and his law have never yet given anyone the power to obey.


What we have said about deliverance from the sin of prayerlessness has also application as answer to the question: `How may the experience of deliverance be maintained?' Redemption is not granted to us piecemeal, or as something of which we may make use from time to time. It is bestowed as a fullness of Grace stored up in the Lord Jesus, which may be enjoyed in the New fellowship with Him every day. It is so necessary that this great Truth should be driven home and fastened in our minds that we will once more mention it. Nothing can preserve you from carelessness, or make it possible for you to persevere in living, powerful prayer, but a daily close fellowship with Jesus our Lord and the power of the Cross.


He said to His disciples: 'You believe in God, believe also in Me... Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me ...He that believe on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do' (John 14.1, 11, 12).


The Lord wished to teach His disciples that all they had learned from the Old Testament concerning the power and holiness and love of God must now be transferred to Him. They must not believe merely in certain written documents but in Him personally. They must believe that He was in the Father, and the Father is in Him, in such a sense that they had one life, one glory, one hope, one spirit and yes one faith. All that they knew about Christ they would find in God. He laid much emphasis on this because it was only through such a faith in Him and His divine glory that they could do the works which He did, or even greater works. Greater because there by His deaths resurrection would cause more to become as He was, seated at the right hand of God in the Heavenliest, by faith plus nothing. This faith would lead them to know that just as Christ and the Father are one, so also they were in Christ and Christ was in them. It is this intimate, spiritual, personal, uninterrupted relationship to the Lord Jesus which manifests itself powerfully in our lives, and especially in our prayer lives. Let us consider this and see what it means: that all the glorious attributes of God are in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Taken from “The Books of Andrew Murray” in the book “The Prayer Life” chapter three with limited editing by us.



Now picking up with our thought here in Hebrews chapter three and verse 14. An we think you'll see how this all blends in together.

In other words, if salvation is real, if salvation had been totally (this action of God includes our redemption and placement into the spiritual body of Christ) completed by that act of God, then it can never end. It can never be taken away, because that is an act of God. We've said it over and over, stop and think of all that God does. Not what we do, but think of all that God does the moment He saves us and sees our trust. He forgives us, and as we have already seen in I Corinthians, chapter 12, He places us into the one body, He redeems us, He pays the purchase price, He justifies us, He sanctifies us, He glorifies us, He puts the Holy Spirit within us, Should I keep going?! Can God undo all of that? No way. God WILL not! Or He wouldn’t be the God of His Word. He wouldn't be a Covenant keeping God, the Ever Living One, the God of an Endless Life. But this one thing we have to get hold of He demands our obedience to His divine Will and purpose which this Gospel reveals and the Old Testament Law demands, death.


And so, the whole IF problem is, have they been genuinely saved, or have they merely tasted or only made a emotional affirmation. Have they considered it, but in their heart they are still saying, I can’t quite buy this? Alright, so let’s go on to verse 15.

Hebrews 3:15a
"While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,…"
That goes back again into the previous verse. What hardens hearts? Sin! And who is at the head of the sin business? Satan. Let us show you in II Corinthians, chapter 4, and let’s just look at verses 3 and 4:

II Corinthians 4:3-4a
" But if our gospel be hid (in other words, of no use) it is hid to them that are lost: (they are still in their lawlessness. They are still in their sin, and in these people that are still in their lawlessness, in these people)In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which (oh, what is the word?) believe not,…"
Isn’t that simple? It doesn’t say a word about all the sins of the flesh that we mentioned before. No, that’s not their problem. That’s just the result of their unbelief. But, the opposite of unbelief is belief! Trust, trust in His Faith! See? Now reading verse 4 again.


II Corinthians 4:4 "In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the visible image of the invisible God, should shine unto them."
So who keeps people in their darkness. Well, Satan does. How does Satan do it? By keeping them involved in their sin. Now, can you see why we’ve got a problem today? My, our kids are hooked on the videos and the TV programs that are nothing but rot and smut, and it simply destroys their character, then there's our school and religious systems which corrupts their thinking. No wonder it is so hard to get through to them. The only way, evidently, churches think they can get them is to use the world’s approach. We can’t agree with it, but more and more are going that way. The problem is they have been blinded by the deceitfulness of sin. That's why there's no prayer life in the individual or church, yes its because they've allowed sin in the camp and the devil has had a field day now for over 5000 years.

Alright, back to Hebrews chapter 3, and verse 15 again, and then I want to come back to Romans again.

Hebrews 3:15a
"While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice,…"
Alright, how do we hear the voice of God? How do we hear it? Well, Romans, chapter 10 tells us. We're sure you know and you will recognize them as soon as we start. Starting at verse 13.

Romans 10:1314a
"For whosoever (none excepted, this is an invitation to the whole human race.) shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (that’s a promise. Now then, the question is,) How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?…"
In other words, how can they become believers of someone they Know nothing of? Or as is the case today who knows nothing of God or His mysteries as revealed to Paul.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXI

I Corinthians 12:12
"For as the body (or human body) is one, and has many members. (now, what does that speak of? Our hands, fingers, toes, ears, eyes, all of these things make up our body.) and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." Or the spiritual body of Christ is made up of many members. Do you see that?


I Corinthians 12:13a
"For by one Spirit (by the work of the Holy Spirit) are we all. (not just some of the elite. Not just some who have had a particular experience, but every believer is) baptized (or placed into) one body, (which Ephesians calls the body of Christ.)


That composition of believers from wherever they are, whatever their station in life, at redemption they are brought in and become part and parcel of the Body of Christ. Now some of us may be a little toe. Some of us may be nothing more than an ear or an eye or something like that, but we are members of the one body, and we all have a function. That’s why it behooves every believer to be used of God in whatever particular purpose He has. This is what the gifts of the Spirit is all about and how they are to be properly applied or used. Alright, so here we are placed into the body by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy spirit is the Gift of God for us all now to live in dependency of:


I Corinthians 12:13b
"…whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether we be bond or free; and we have been all made to drink (or partake) into one Spirit."


The human body as well as the body of Christ is not one member but many. The whole analogy of the rest of this chapter is that God is building the body of Christ, individual by individual, placing them where He wants them. Just like, and we have used this analogy over and over, like the little baby in the mother’s womb. My, that doesn’t just form all at once, but over nine months those cells are going to their rightful place. The cells that compose the fingernails go to the fingernail. The cells that compose the eye go to the eye. And all through that nine-month period, that little body is finally brought to a completion. Every cell had gone to where it has to be to make that little creature function. Alright, so is the body of Christ. And like all seeds it has to pass through the veil of death in order for it to be birthed and yes even the mother passes through death in child birthing. We by God's Will have to pass through His death in order to be re-birthed or born again. Then we begin a process over of growth unto maturity or perfection which is to bring us to salvation. We're not to remain a young child or infant for ever. As with our growth and development there are no less than two stages so there is in our birthing into God's Kingdom.


Now for 2000 and some years God has been bringing them into the body one at a time.

Alright, so is the body of Christ. We’ve never lost our individuality. And God knows every one of us as an individual and yet the composite is the one body of Christ and will one day be complete. And, that is why we're proponents of the departure. We have to be taken out. We will not fit in the tribulation economy. That’s the best word we can find. Because the tribulation or Jacobs troubles are for the Hebrew, and for the rest of the unbelieving world. The tribulation isn’t for the believers! Those within the spiritual Body of Christ, as it has to be taken out, and it will be. We're adamant on that!


Because Paul alone, tells us about the forming of the Body of Christ. Paul alone tells us how the Body is to function in this world. Paul alone is going to give us the end of the Body on earth and it’s deliverance. See that? So, here we have then, as we find coming out of Hebrews, let’s go back there again. That the Body of Christ is being formed because as we became receiving believers of the Gospel of Grace, we became partakers or companions of Christ by virtue of the fact that the Holy Spirit has placed us into the One Body. What a unique position, and the number of its members is limited in number, to be a member of Christ Himself requires obedience to God's revealed Will. We are not just subjects of a King. Oh, He is going to be King of Kings don’t think for a minute He won’t be, but we are not the subjects of a King. We are members of the One Body of Christ. Alright, back to Hebrews:

Hebrews 3:14a
"For we are made partakers of Christ, (and there is that big word I made mention of earlier.) if"…"


The word "if" here is not a matter of these Hebrews having been saved and losing it, because they have not totally entered in. They’re on the fence. They are considering it. If we have been enlightened. It doesn’t say it is impossible if they have been saved. But, they’ve only been enlightened. They have tasted, they have stepped in with one foot. Just as the many do even in our day and time, they began the process but as Paul warns they stopped short. And, then what did they do? They turned around and went back into Judaism. He warned the Galatians of falling backward into they're paganism or under the spell of Judaism.


Now, we've all had the same problem, especially with people in cults, or religionists and legalists as we called them. We're not going to name them, but there are more than one. This happened for us back under the tent in Ocala, Florida in early 1985. And, they have the same problem. Oh, it is so hard to break with that cult or religions brainwashing that they have been under for maybe 30, 50 or 60 years. It isn’t that they are going to be saved and lost. It’s because they can’t truly come in and experience a real rebirth into salvation. So, that is what we are dealing with here in Hebrews. Don’t ever get the idea that we are talking about Hebrews who were saved and lost. Or that IF they can hang on they will still be saved. No, the "IF" is, have you really been saved? This is where we're probably shaking a few people up. We don’t want to make people miserable and doubt their salvation if they have truly been saved. Not at all. But, listen we’ve got millions NO billions of people out there that think they are saved, and they have never had a salvation experience. Those are the people that we have to warn. Yes, this if is a big "IF" for you if you have never been truly saved. Our first look at it is found with Peter when he replied to Jesus' question, “who do men say that I am?” It was not the response that counts but rather the way he received the inspiration that is the key. For it is upon this key that all of scripture is based from there now out into infinity. Why? Because as the son of man Jesus said, "upon this rock I will build My Church", not the Old Testament which runs up through Acts chapter 11. But upon the illumination which the called out and appointed Apostle Paul was given by the risen LORD personally.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXX

Romans 3:19a
"Now we know that what things soever the law (that is the law of God. The very mind of God, the Will of Gos is.) it says to them who are under the law:" In other words, what most automatically think is the Law was originally given to what people? Israel. Israel was put under the Levitical Law and the whole system of worship that was associated with it. Alright, but it doesn’t stop there. Yes, the Law was given to them who were under that Law but, that how many mouths should be stopped?


Romans 3:19b
"…that every mouth may be stopped,…" Every mouth! Not just the Hebrew but every mouth of the whole human race should be just clamped shut by what? The righteousness of the law of God. Who’s perfect. He’s sinless. Alright, read on.


Romans 3:19c
"…that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world. (not just Israel, but that all the world) may become guilty before God."


Guilty!! And what does guilt always demand? A sentence. Doesn’t it? We go before a court of law and if the Judge slams the gavel down and he says, "Guilty." What follows? Sentencing. And it is no different in the Spiritual realm. The guilty world is going to come up for sentencing. There is no escaping it. And God is going to have the record. There will be no argument. It’s going to be awful, and that’s why the world doesn’t want to hear about it. How often do churches ever, ever mention Hell anymore? Almost, never. The law as we saw back in Genesis was first spoken and given to Adam when he disobeyed the command which carried with it the penalty, separation from God, death. That command then became law as it revealed lawlessness, sin. That put all humanity under the yoke of bondage in chains tied to Satan's authority, which also covers human government established by God in Genesis 8:15-11:32. This human government runs from Genesis 8:15 though to Revelations 19, in other words until the Lord sets up His rule over Israel and the nations, the millennium period. The last portion of God's divine time table as seen in Psalm 2 verses 9 through 12. This is another subject area for teaching later.


We just trust that the Lord will use us to open the Scriptures to your understanding. This thrills our heart to see so many lost people coming to a knowledge of salvation but many, many more believers who have never had an understanding of the Scriptures are finally getting their eyes opened.


Paul is addressing primarily a Hebrew congregation, wherever they are. And the people are in a battle to make a clean break with Judaism and come over in to this doctrine of Grace which is trusting, faith + nothing in the finished work of the cross for salvation. (I Corinthians 15:1-4) It’s trusting, faith + nothing, and without any attachment to the Levitical Law and temple worship and so forth. So always remember, that first and foremost the people we are dealing with here. But, we can also glean so much that applies to us even as Church Age believers in God's Gospel of His Grace and the Better New Covenant of His Grace. Remember too, that God has in this Gospel as in each of His economies, has set out certain rules and terms of conditions with penalties, that we are required to know and follow is Israel had, but failed. He is the Living Covenant God.

Hebrews 3:13
"But exhort one another daily, (not just once a week on Sunday) while it is called Today; (your day of opportunity) lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."


Remember, he is talking to people that are involved in a religious system. Now if you doubt when we call Judaism a religious system, back up with us to the Book of Galatians chapter 1, where the Apostle Paul is reviewing his own past. Let’s just start at verse 11. Because we never say any of these things to put any one group down or to make any snide remarks or anything like that. But it is just based on Scripture that the Judaism of which these people were still a part, was indeed a religion. Which could and did stand alone and does so still. And of course, we maintain that Christianity is not a religion. As religion is comprised of works and things that you have to do, whereas, our Salvation is by trusting His faith and His faithfulness alone in that finished work of the cross! That said, this age of God's Grace still has rules of requirements and penalty. And Paul is rehearsing his going into the ministry, so he says:


Galatians 1:11-13
"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preach of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but, by the revelation of Jesus Christ. (now here it comes.) For you have heard of my conversation (or manner of living) in times past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church (or the assembly of Jewish believers) of God, and wasted it:"


Now in verse 14 he says it again. And I "profited in the Jews’ religion." Okay? So now when we come back to Hebrews and we use the word, hopefully, we're on the right track that these people were still half in the religion of Judaism but they were also contemplating and some of them had completely embraced Paul’s Gospel of what we call the Age of Grace. So they are on the fence. Now consequently when we come down to verse 14, we're going to use the little word, "if." And it doesn’t make any reflection on our losing the salvation that we once had, but it is dealing with these people who are battling the complete break with their religion and stepping into this whole economy of Grace. It’s not a matter of their being saved and then lost. It’s a matter of making a break with that which withholds their whole salvation. Alright, we’ll come back to that again later. So he says again:


Hebrews 3:13
"But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Or "lawlessness." Just a complete rejection of the things that God had laid out for mankind. Now verse 14.


Hebrews 3:14
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”


Hebrews 3:14a
"For we are made partakers of Christ,…" In other words, when we come into the Body of Christ, we are not like a subject of a king. We are a member of the Head Who is in Heaven and of which we are the Body. Now, we guess we should stop right here. Goodness! Come back with us to I Corinthians, chapter 12, because this ties in so perfectly with what he says here. We are partakers of Christ, by the power of the Gospel, and the New Covenant of course. But now, look what that means.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXIX

Hebrew 3:13a
"But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; (in this Age of Grace) lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (and be lost lawlessness of humanity)
Now we have already looked at how Eve was confronted by deception. And after all, what did old Satan, the Devil say to Eve? "Hey, it will do you good! There is nothing bad going to come from eating of this tree. It will do you good. You will be like God!" Well what was that? Deceit! And we see it at every hand today. We're just reading another article on the meth drug problem. How in the world can our young people even think of taking a chance? Because it has such immediate, evidently, immediate gratification. And it just puts them in an immediate euphoria. But what happens. Within a little while they have to have another one. And in a little while they have to have still another one and pretty soon they are hooked.


My goodness, we just read that since the gas prices have been so high, that there have been a lot of drilling activity there in Oklahoma, Wyoming and other Nortwestern states once again and we're sure you read the same things we do. Last spring when a lot of these drilling companies were looking for men to work out there in the drilling fields, you know what the employment rate dropped out there, NO, it should have dropped but because of drugs? Fifty percent! Fifty percent of the applicants could not be hired because of their drug problem. Now listen, that is shocking. What is our nation coming to? But, you see, that is the deceitfulness of sin. Oh, it just looks so good. It’s so inviting. Yes, it gives you euphoria. It makes you feel good for a little bit. But then it drags you down and we know the end result. Ruined lives by the thousands all around us. And the sad part is that those of us that behave ourselves have to pick up the bill for it. That’s what gripes us. Why are our health expenses so ferocious? Because most of the people laying in our hospital beds are there because they have abused their bodies with cigarettes, booze and drugs and we have to pay for it.


Well, we love them for Christ’s sake, because He loves them, but the sad fact is, it was their choice. You know, we always have to think when we were just a young fellow and we will never forget the term that we used. Self-destruction! The human race is just bent on self-destruction. Isn’t that what it is? They just self-destructive. Why? Through the deceitfulness of sin! Oh, it is deceitful.


Alright, then we're going to come on up to the first word. Hardened. We’re still in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13.


Hebrews 3:13b
"…Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness…"
What does that word hardened imply? Well, the further people go into sin the more their consciences are seared against what is wrong and they know it’s wrong, but it doesn’t bother them. Then finally they get to the place where they can do it without batting an eye. And they become hardened to it. Alright, let’s go back to Romans again because we like to back everything up with Scripture. Because after all, what William thinks, that doesn’t mean anything. But, what does The Book say? Alright, for one thing, some of the results of man’s sins are listed here in Romans chapter 3 and we are all aware of it. We see it all around us. This isn’t anything that was unique only to Paul’s day. It is just as evident today. Romans chapter 3, and we are going to start in verse 10.


Romans 3:10
"As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one." Now that comes clear out of the Old Testament, so it has always been this way. There is none that understand. There is none that seeks or searches after God. Why? They’ve got their own laws. They are lawless, so far as the things of God are concerned. Now verse 11.


Romans 3:11-12
"There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one." They are of no earthly good so far as God is concerned. And there is none that does good, no not one. Now here it comes. This is the description of the lawless, hardened individual in verse 13.


Romans 3:13-18
"Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have use deceit; the poison of asp (or poisonous snakes) is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes."
Why? They are lawless. They have no concern about the law of God. Alright, keep your hand in chapter 3 and we will be back in a little bit. Now, let’s flip over to Galatians, because, see, this is what the Book called it. This isn’t our idea. This is what The Word of God calls it. Oh, the deceitfulness of sin! It has such an allurement. We don’t think any of us would deny that most sin, on the surface, is alluring. That’s why we call it temptation. It has that ability to get our attention. Alright, now in Galatians chapter 5, here they are listed. They are listed for us to be aware of. That we never, never compromise the fact that these things are the result of sin. Lawlessness. You know, we are living in a society where nothing is wrong anymore. We don’t know what sin is. It is a sad commentary and our nation is suffering the results of it. For we have evil on every side and the choices we have are all of them evil but one is more evil than the others. Alright look at how Paul lists it here in Galatians chapter 5 verse 19. This right along with what he wrote in Romans chapter 3.


Galatians 5:19-21 "Now the works of the flesh (of the carnal individual) are manifest, which are these; adultery, (sexual immorality is always at the top of the list.) fornication, (which is just another word for it only in a worse state.) uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, (instead of worshiping the Living God, what are we worshiping? A dead god! That’s what idolatry is. It’s worshiping a dead god instead of the Living One.) witchcraft, (what’s that? Drawing on the powers of the satanic world.) hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."


Why? Because they are lawless. They are hardened by the deceitfulness of lawlessness. Alright, come back to Romans chapter 3. And oh, this just says it so clearly. It’s their lawlessness and their living in the deceitfulness of sin which is far worse than they have any idea of. That it’s going to be when they start in on it, then it follows that they are guilty. They know that they are guilty. And that is why they have got to constantly subject their guilty feelings with more and more of the same. But, deep down they know that in the eyes of a Holy God, they are guilty. Alright, let’s look at it. Romans chapter 3 now verse 19. Now, don’t lose sight of the verse in Hebrews: through the deceitfulness of sin, they are being hardened.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXVIII

So we are going to go back and start with that word "sin." In the Greek, the word is anomia. Now we're not a Greek scholar, we want everybody to know that but once in a while we'll look up a word and this one is anomia, and it is in the Greek Dictionary that we have it is translated as lawless or lawlessness. Now stop and think for a moment. Isn’t that exactly what sin is all about apart from covetousness? The first step of sin is a mental act of rebellion against what God has said. That’s what it means to covet and tied to it is lawless. Now just think about that for a moment, that the sin that so easily besets us and that plagues the human race starts out as both covetousness and lawlessness. God has made certain provisions for the human race, He’s laid down certain instructions tied together with penalties, but what is the natural reaction to all of that? "I’m not going to! No, God."


You know, we always like to use Psalms 14, where the translators have added a word that kind of takes away the punch, we think, where "the fool has said in his heart there is no God." But when we take away what the translators added which are italicized back there and it is "there is," take that away, and we have, "The fool has said in his heart" what? "No, God!" See! We're not going to do what You are telling me. And what is that? That’s lawlessness! So, let’s go all the way back to Genesis, where it all began. No let’s go back even before that! Let’s go to old Lucifer a king, an allegory of Satan found in Isaiah chapter 14. We didn’t intend to do this, we were just going to go to Genesis, but the thought just struck us that we find the first act of covetousness and lawlessness, even before Adam and Eve, in Isaiah chapter 14. The very first act of covetousness and lawlessness - Sin. As it has bedraggled the human race from day one. Isaiah chapter 14 and we’ll just start at verse 12.


Before we get there there is another verse we should look at for in it and with its help we'll gain the knowledge which God intends us to acquire. This we'll find in 2 Corinthians chapter 10:
2Corinthians 10:5-6
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." For many will jump in with some other scripture verse before understanding what God is saying in the first and this is in effect being lawless because its not in obedience to God or our having the mind of Christ. Now Isaiah:

Isaiah 14:12a "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer…." Now we know that a lot of our new translations don’t have Lucifer in there but our old King James still does. This kings throne was likened to the seat of God in the heavens by the writer as a figure of speech or of a type so his listeners could understand the symbolism and allegory.


Isaiah 14:12-14 "How are you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!(the reference is to Venus the star of the early morning of dawn) how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you, have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit upon the mount of the congregation (Zion), in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; (and here it comes) I will be like the most High." What this old king, Lucifer is saying? I am going to usurp God’s throne and His authority. Did God tell him to do that? No. So what is he, both lawless and covetous! He is going contrary to everything that God had stipulated and he is telling God in so many words, "I am going to take your place." So this is covetousness the beginning of lawlessness or sin (this is the same action that Satan took and had expressed, this is also within Nimrod and what he did and which the tower of Babel was all about) as we know it even in our own human experience. Alright, now then, let’s go back an pick it up in Genesis chapter 3 where we have the first evidence of this kind of human action – to covet and lawless. Or covetousness and lawlessness. And it is, of course, Satan tempting Eve back there in the garden. And let’s just jump right in to verse 6. I guess we really should remind ourselves, what had God told Adam earlier? Of that one tree in the garden, "you shalt not eat." That’s all He said! "You shalt not eat of it." Remember to that He said it to Adam as he was a complete perfect spiritual divine being and he was to tell it to woman even though she was at that time apart of Man. Now look what happens in verse 6 of Genesis 3.


Genesis 3:6a "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired (coveted) to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,…" What had God told them, as one being? "You shalt not." So what is she doing? She is becoming covetous and then lawless. She is disobeying the revealed will of God, and that’s what sin is. Oh, it wasn’t anything grossly immoral. She didn’t kill anybody, or rob anyone. She didn’t go out and tear down somebody’s personality with vile language. She made a simple act of plucking the fruit from the tree and eating it. But, what did it do? Not through Eve’s act, but the next part of the verse. Since she gives it to her husband who is with her, and he did eat, now as soon as Adam ate knowing what he was doing, what does he become? Lawless! Dead to God; And what does he introduce into the human race? Sin and death! And so sin has plagued the human race from that day forward. That by the way was given as a command, but because of the disobedience it becomes the first law of commandment because it also had the penalty attached to it, death. This death is spiritual separation from intercourse, fellowship or communion with God, as He can not see or hear sin. He does not look upon it. How do we know this by His calling for them in the Garden, they were hidden from His eyes. Not just because they had hidden themselves (their now awakened conscience was in shames grip), their innocents or glory had departed them, but also because He can not now look at or see sin.


Now let’s come all the way back up to Romans. Romans chapter 5, because as we can see, this is the whole idea of Scripture not only to give us the plan of salvation, (which includes our conversion into redemption as an inclusive action of God) but to give us the reason for the need of it. Why do we need redemption and salvation? Because without it we are lawless. Without it we are not obedient to the revealed Will of God. Natural man is in darkness which causes him to turn away from the light because he loves the darkness more. We are in constant opposition to it. Though we may have some knowledge of scripture we're still held in darkness because we've not leaned Christ nor have we heard Him say: "take all thoughts captive and in obedience of Christ" that is found in the cup and the cross. Alright, so how did it all begin? Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Remember Paul is writing:


Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man, (Adam,) sin (lawlessness) entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" Or become lawless. Now, let us show another one in Romans chapter 8. And we know every time we read this verse we have to be amazed that the human race does as well as it does! Now we are going down the tube real fast, we all know that. But, it’s just amazing that the human race has held together for 6,000 plus years because look at our lot. Romans chapter 8 and let’s just start with verse 6.


Romans 8:6a "For to be carnally (or fleshly, earthly, materially) minded is death;…"
In other words, with no sign of a total salvation experience, they are still in their lawlessness. So to be carnally minded is death, spiritual death, in other words their church attendance has done them no earthly or heavenly good. Their doom is coming, like we saw. They are going to meet the Living God. Not as their Savior but as their Judge.


Romans 8:6-7a "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (This is brought about through conversion and redemption and here is the reason in verse 7.) Because the carnal mind (the saved? or unsaved person,) is enmity against God;…"
Now what is that? He’s lawless. He doesn’t do what God says, He doesn’t pay any attention to the precepts of God. He does it his own way, He’s lawless. And consequently then, he’s doomed. But look what the rest of the verse says.


Romans 8:7 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."



Why not? Because he is lawless. He doesn’t pay any attention to the law, he’s a scoffer of "the law of God". Now we suppose that there are people in all of our communities who even treat the civil law the same way today. They don’t pay any attention to the civil law. They just do things their own way, but sooner or later it’s going to catch up with them. We know that. Alright now the same way here, in Spiritual things, the lost person in his lawlessness, well, he may get through this life. He just may skim through, but he’s not going to get through eternity. And so one day he’s going to come before the Righteous Judge and he’s going to be confronted with all of his years of lawlessness and he’s going to fall into the hands of the Living God. And the Living God is not going to be a God of mercy and Grace anymore. It’s going to be too late for that person. now we're not limiting this to just the none-converted person but it includes those who are still in the corral or under the tutor of the Law. As these people can also become snagged in their learning of Christ by the Holy Spirit. How? Paul addresses the ways throughout this Epistle and in Galatians. Do you see that? Now back to Hebrews chapter 3 and we will pick up the second phrase. Because you see they all tie together.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXVII

And they are not just in the land. They are in the news every day of the week! "Can you believe this? Can you believe a little nation of five million people, living in a geographical area no bigger than part of New Jersey and yet they are in the news everyday! And they still have their national identity. They are still keeping the various feast days and holidays and as best they can the Law. And we think that is normal?" Boy, that is miraculous as anything can be! And, yet it’s exactly what this Book said would happen. So there is your proof, that, along with all the other things. See, now we know there were hundreds of definitive prophecies fulfilled at Christ’s first coming. But see, that’s still easy for the scoffer to push aside and say "Well that’s just the way you look at it."


They cannot deny that the Nation of Israel that began back here in Genesis is now in the land again today. They are, like we've said before and we will say it again, they are in the news everyday. Why? There are other areas of the world that are in just as big a turmoil. In fact we have been using Sri Lanka as an example. The old island of Ceylon. Just the other day and they’re still having all kinds of war and turmoil in Sri Lanka. Does the world get shook up about that? No, they don’t even pay any attention.


In Africa, all the places of turmoil and torture in Africa. Does the world get all upset and send the Secretaries of State all over to them? No. But, oh, that little Nation of Israel draws everybody’s attention, see? And just take heart the next time that you see Israel in the news we just tell yourself, proof positive, that my Bible is indeed the supernatural, Holy Spirit, Divinely inspired Word of God! Which proves that we serve the One and only Living God! A God who has been in control of human history now for 8,000 to 10,000 plus years. How miraculous that God started everything back there in the Garden and left man with a free will. He left nations with a free will. They are not puppets on a string (though Satan has a field-day with them all) and yet here we are 6,000 plus years later and we are right on His schedule! We are not off one day! We are not off a week! We think we can say, we are not off one hour. God’s Word is true!!


Lets stop here a moment and look at Psalm 2 verses 8 and 9:
Psalm 2:7-9 "I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (This is repeated in Hebrews 1:5 and 3:6 but we'll look at 1 Timothy 1:12-13 where Paul says:1Timothy 1:12-15 "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful (within this stewardship by), putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." Now the word stewardship though added means dispensation and that is what this parenthetical clause is, just as the Son came in human from for a short or little while as the son of man. He made Himself a little lower than the angels. Then when He comes the second time God will pick up where this period of time and prophecy was interrupted. This being:) Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."



Well, you see the way we enjoy God today, of course is first and foremost through His Word. And so we just trust that we can get people into the Book and not go by what we say, but search the Scriptures and see if these things are true. It is the Scriptures that have to change our mind. We can’t. But we have to come into the Book and not through the eyes of the Old earthy, carnal man but rather with the eyes of the spiritual man. The New Covenant man for then the Word takes on new and Living meaning.


Hebrews 3:13a "But exhort one another daily…" Now we're going to stop right there a moment. How many times a week does the average Christian even so much as think about Spiritual things? Once! That’s about right. Sunday morning at 10 or 11:00 o’clock. And that is about as far as it ever goes. We're not talking about everybody. We're just talking about the mundane, average church-goer. Sunday morning, between 9:00 and 11:00 am and then about 6:00 pm, he’s in his pew and when that hour is over, he goes home, turns on TV and he never thinks about it again until next Sunday. But you see, that is not what the Word of God teaches. The Word of God says that every time believers bump into each other, what should be we talking about? Not the weather! Not sports! Not politics! But rather The Word! Spiritual things!


There is nothing we like better than to answer questions. It helps put us on a Spiritual plane that we think every believer should be prone to do. That should be our main topic of conversation, whenever believers come together.


And this is what Paul is saying now, that believers are to exhort one another not just one hour on Sunday morning. But daily! Everyday!


Hebrews 3:13a "But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day;…" Alright, now this term "today" for us, of course, is this Age of Grace. Today for us is now. For the people living today, this is their day of opportunity. And consequently, what a warning, that while it is called today, while we are still in this Age of Grace and charged with the Gospel of Grace and we still have this opportunity of expressing our trust in His faith and for lost people to embrace it, my, he says, do it every day and at every opportunity:


Hebrews 3:13b "…lest any of you be harden through the deceitfulness of sin." Now we're going to take three words out of this verse. Hebrews seems to sort of, somehow or another, enhance that and we know we did it here a while back. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation!" Well, we're going to do the same thing in this verse. We’ve got three phrases here that are loaded and the average reader just skims right over them and never sees it. Alright, look at it again. "Lest any of you be hardened," that’s the third phrase we're going to look at. "Through the deceitfulness," that’s the second phrase we are going to look at. And "of sin." That will be the first one. We’ll take them in the reverse order.

The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXVI

"Narrow is the way and few there be that find it!"(Matthew 7:14)
Beloved, that word few is getting smaller and smaller every day. We were just reading that our whole younger generation, the vast majority of our kids, not all, but the vast majority have no concept of what is right and wrong. They are taught nothing from this Book anymore. And we know a lot of our language is based on things Scriptural. In other words, we have often read even in a secular accounts, "a Damascus experience." Well, what does that mean to our younger generation? Nothing! They don’t know about a Damascus experience. See? And that is just one example. And so, we are now in a time when the way is getting narrower and fewer and fewer then are coming in to it. It is sad! But we are going to see why, here, as we move on through Hebrews.


Alright, so Israel now has to be constantly on our mind as they are sitting there at the gates of Canaan at Kadesh-Barnea. God has told them to go in and in their unbelief, they rejected it. Alright, so He says:


Hebrews 3:12 "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the (One) living God."
Now, the casual readers don’t even think of that twice. But, stop a moment. How many of the religions of this world from all the way back to the present, worshiped a Living God? Not many. In fact, NONE other than Christianity. Oh, even the Hebrews started out worshiping Him who is alive forevermore but along the line they replaced Him with they're own image by reason of mental disease or defect. They made their religion or rather its system of rules and regulations an idol. And thereby making themselves part of the lawless ones by worshiping the created more than the Creator. For now they worship they know not what. Look at your pagan societies, the Hindus and Buddhists - you name it. Do they worship a Living God? No! They worshiped a dead idol. And that is what the Scripture calls it. They are just dead idols. Dumb idols, is what it is called in one place. They can’t even speak. So they are not a Living God, they are a dead god. They are a god of the mind and of the imagination of mans design. They are a god that Satan uses and empowers from his side of the court, but they are dead gods. There are a few churches in “Christendom” with those same dead stone idols or figures of men, women and angels lining the walls and hallways in them. Some don't have those figures but are none the less filled with dead mans bones because the gospel they all adhere to is a lie.


But you see on the flip side of that we are different. Here we stand as Believers and our Faith is in the Living God! Now, we went through our concordance and we found 28 times from Genesis trough Revelation, where we find this term the Living God. Now remember, when David confronted old Goliath, that was one of the first times it was used and Goliath had the audacity to try and withstand the Living God! Well, he found out to his own doom, that it just won’t work.


And so all the way up through Scripture we have these various accounts of the Living God. It is from two points of view. Either the Living God as the God of wrath and judgment, as He was to old Goliath. Or, He’s the Living God who brings joy and peace and bliss to the believer, those who will to receive Him. Alright, now of these 28 times then that the Living God is referred to in our whole Bible, four of them are in Hebrews alone! Isn’t that amazing! Four times out of the 28 are in Hebrews. Now this is the one and the next one we think is in chapter 9 verse 14. We will just look at them quickly so that we will get the impact of just two words! "The Living God!" You see, that is why it is so paramount that we understand that Christ arose from the dead! We don’t worship a dead Christ, the Jesus who walked the dusty roads of Palestine and was crucified. The tomb is empty! And our Faith, NO our trust is in a Living God!



Hebrews 9:14 "And how much more shall the blood of Christ, (that is beyond what the animal blood was in the Old Testament economy,) who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, and purge (purged the mind of the true believer, for we are to acquire the mind of Christ) your conscience from dead works (to serve Who?) the living God?"


That’s where we are! We are serving the Living God! Alright the next one is in chapter 10 and verse 31 if we remember right. Now here’s the other side of the coin. My, this Living God can be bliss and joy to the believer but He’s going to be the direct opposite to the unbeliever. We'll know them by their manner of life style or fruits.


Hebrews 10:31 "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands (of what?) of the living God."

The Living God! From eternity past to eternity future, He’s always the same Living God! Now the next one is in chapter 12 verse 22. Here we come to the good part again. This is our part of the Living God! For the lost person He’s going to be the God of wrath and judgment. It’s going to be an awful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God, but for us:


Hebrews 12:22 "But you are come to mount Sion, (Zion) and to the city of the living God, (not the earthly Jerusalem, but which one?) the heavenly Jerusalem, and into an innumerable company of angels."

So here is where we are today! My, with our knowledge of Scripture increasing and with the unfolding of the power of the Holy Spirit, we are living evidence every day that we are serving a Living God.


Now, we want to share how we know the Bible is true. "Well why do you believe that that Book, the Bible is true?" We answer those kind of questions with two words. THE JEW. The Jew! He is living proof that this Book is true.



We see, all the way back as far as Deuteronomy chapter 30, which Moses wrote 1,500 years before Christ, which is 3,500 plus years ago from now. Moses wrote that the Nation of Israel would be scattered into every nation under heaven, none excepted. James Michener and his book The Source, chases a Jewish family from antiquity up to the present. In his research he found that indeed, there were Hebrews in every sovereign state on the planet.


Moses said that that would happen. But Moses wrote in the next verse that one day, he didn’t say when, but that one day the Nation of Israel would be back in their homeland. We are seeing it! Against all the odds. Now the average person doesn’t stop to think. Can you imagine a nation of people as small as Israel. Never more than ten million. Today they are around fifteen or sixteen million Hebrews around the world, and that is probably as much as there have ever been. And yet here this small nation of people were driven out into every nation under heaven. Persecuted like you and I have no idea, and yet never lost their Jewish identity.


Now you would have thought that under ordinary circumstances they would have assimilated into the Gentile Nations and they would have disappeared. But they didn’t! They kept their national identity. And here they are 3,500 plus years later just exactly like this Book said they would be – they are back in the land.