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.
No comments:
Post a Comment