The Epistle to the Hebrews part CXXXII

Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."


That’s this Gospel of the Grace of God. That God in His mercy has seen fit to save those who simply place their trust in Him and believe – without works. Now if you’ll come back to Hebrews again. So Paul is saying now, once you’ve come through these words of Jesus in His earthly ministry establishing Who He was. Making all the promises that had been confirmed to the fathers and through the Prophets. Because, when Israel rejected all that and crucified their Messiah, in reality, they were just simply fulfilling the Sovereign blueprint of God because Christ had to die. He had to go to the Cross. But nevertheless, in a system that the mere humans can’t understand fully, God made it a valid offer to the Nation of Israel to accept the King and the Kingdom.

But God knew that they wouldn’t. He knew that they would reject it and He knew that they would bring in the crucifixion which brought about our Gospel. Alright, so now then Paul says, don’t stay on just that foundation. Don’t try to tear it up and build another one. Or don’t try to put another foundation on top of that one. Let that one be and let’s move on. And see that is just what our religious system has been found doing through its ceremonies of religious rituals by way of covert pagan idols and gods being worshiped under the guise of and name of God or His Son. Even Peter warns against such things in our passages used earlier and we'll see more in this Epistle as well. Now getting back to our main subject.

I guess I would have to use an analogy here I like to bring everything down to an everyday experience. I think we see it over and over especially in our mobile society. Maybe a young couple has been successful in a city. We’ll just say right here in Cleveland. And they have just made plans to build a new home. They’ve got the foundation poured. All of sudden he gets a job change. He has to go to a different part of the country for pursuit of his job.

Well, what are they going to do? First, they’re not going to finish building their new home. They’ll probably try to sell it for whatever it is, but the analogy I want to make is that they are not going to build on that foundation which is no longer appropriate because they’re moving to a different city. Now when they leave Cleveland and go to his new job opportunity, all things being equal, now what are they going to do? They’re going to lay another foundation and they’re going to start building now granted this may require a few years. Does that help? They'll start over again with anew foundation.

Alright, that’s what we’ve got here. The foundation for the Gospel of the Kingdom was laid and we’ll be looking at some of the precepts of it. But, now we’ve got something better, so move on!

Let’s look at the foundation of this Gospel of the Grace of God that we’re going to be talking about. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 dropping in at verse 10. Now Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles is writing to Gentiles under this whole new revelation of the mysteries or the secrets which includes the Gospel of the Grace of God and he’s dealing with these Corinthians much like he does the Hebrews there in chapters 5 and 6, that they’re to come on away from their material, or external and carnality and become spiritual and get into the meat of the matter. The Hebrews were not known for being spiritual people as their religion was based on an external priesthood which dealt primarily with things material or earthy. They were works orientated because there was no room made for redemption or forgiveness of wrongs done, their penalty was death. They were warned about what we call a blinded gospel or trying to use both the old and the new under the same umbrella. Both warned of by Jeremiah and the other prophets not to do. Then the Lord Jesus Himself warns them about doing such a thing again in His parable of the old cloth and the new cloth and the old wine skin and the new wine. Back to our lesson:

Because he says the same thing in verse 2 of this chapter. He says, "I fed you with milk not with meat." (why?) "Because up to this time you were not able to bear it." See they were babes in Christ. So we’ve got pretty much the same setting. But now look at verse 10.

I Corinthians 3:10
"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder. (the head contractor) I have laid (not a foundation, but what) the (the only) foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon."