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Hymn #11 and the offendings.
Seven might be a profitable.
Subject for us.
Reading the last two verses of chapter 10 and.
Chapter 11.
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Hebrews, chapter 10.
Verse 38.
Now the justice shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh.
By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found.
God had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.
But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
By faith Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as an estranged country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed.
And was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Therefore spraying there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises.
But having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them.
And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth.
Where they say. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country, that is and heavenly.
Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them.
A city.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.
And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son.
Of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.
By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped.
Leaning upon the top of his staff by faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.
By faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproaches. Esteeming the reproach of Christ Greater riches.
Than the treasures in Egypt.
For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned.
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By faith, the Walls of Jericho fell down after they were accomplished about seven days.
By faith the harlot Rahab perished. Not with them that believed, not when she had received the spies with peace.
And what shall I more say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon.
And of Barrack, and of Samson, and of Jeptha, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women receive their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Yay, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted.
Were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in the dens and caves of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us.
Should not be made perfect.
You know that.
Believers from among Israel.
Had lost.
All that once meant everything to them.
But this chapter beautifully reminds them.
That in their own history.
They have examples.
Of those who were given promises, and that by faith they clang to these promises and did not really during their lifetime received them, and that was really now in principle the same situation for them.
Their promises now, as those who were partakers of the heavenly calling, was not connected with life on earth. It was outside of this world altogether. They were Christians now, partakers of the heavenly calling, and faith was such an important principle to go by for each and every one of them.
And for us in 1997?
Faith is what is given to us to cling to, what God has promised to us, given us already by faith to enjoy.
And just shall live by faith. Faith is such an important.
Principle. It's not just that faith gives us to be saved by grace through faith that is also that which is to characterize the life of the believer.
While going through this world which is a wilderness, you know.
You know, Hebrews is a desert, a pistol, a wilderness a pistol, and we are on a journey.
Home, you know, heaven is our home. We have blessings there, and all our hopes and expectations are outside of this world altogether.
My brother read to us in the 13th chapter, verse 7.
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We'll read it again. Hebrews 13 seven.
Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God.
Whose faith followed, considering the end of their conversation.
Well, I remember one of those old brothers and he said everything that you have, that you'll always have, you have by faith.
It's quite a state.
All the rest passes away. Everything that you have, that you will always have, you have by faith.
And there is a special blessing for believing the Lord said to Thomas.
Thomas, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have.
Not seen and yet have believed.
Faith believes what it can't see goes far beyond. Through faith we understand. It's a wonderful chapter we have before us. See the substantiation of those things that were hoped for makes them real before our eyes by faith.
And without faith, it's impossible to please God. Don't we want to please God?
We ought to. He's made us his children we live by.
Faith.
That's stated four times in the Bible. That just shall live by faith, once in the Old Testament and three times in the New.
How do you apply it to just shall live by faith in this chapter in this book?
Let's in answering that, let's look at the three references in the New Testament. It's a quote from Habakkuk, but in Romans chapter one.
Verse 17 he is talking about the gospel there Romans is the fullest unfolding of the gospel. And he says in verse 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew 1St and also to the Greek. For therein in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, that is on the principle of faith to faith.
As it is written that just shall live by faith, I think in.
Romans The emphasis is on the just how shall man be just with God?
Just to live by faith. It is also found in Galatians chapter 3.
Now I read from verse 10.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written.
Curse it is everyone that continueth, not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
But that no man is justified by the law and the sight of God, it is evident.
For the just shall live by faith. In Galatians it is faith.
In contrast with law, the law is not of faith. Verse 12.
It's contrasting.
Faith, which brings us into blessing with works of the law.
Just in Romans it's the just to live by faith. In Galatians it's the just shall live by faith. And here in Hebrews 1038, now the just shall live by faith. And we have the life of faith brought before us in that 11Th chapter so beautifully, the life of faith and what it produces.
So the emphasis is on just.
In Romans and living in Galatians and faith Hebrews.
Take in contrast with works of law in Galatians and living here in Hebrews.
The life of faith.
It's interesting to notice that in the Old Testament that faith is mentioned only twice.
The book of Deuteronomy, I believe it speaks about children in whom is no faith.
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And in Chapter 11 we have two recorded there, solemn to think of it, Cain and Esau, who had the advantages of faith and yet did not respond.
But then we have an Habakkuk again. The just shall live by faith, and I believe we have perhaps 16 that are recorded here in the 11Th chapter. 14 men perhaps, and two women.
I think it was this verse that the Spirit of God used to deliver Martin Luther from the the system that he was associated with, the Romi system works of law.
It's a vast system of works, and he was trying to gain favor with God by doing some works and climbing stairs on his knees, and the verse came before him. The just shall live by faith, and he was delivered from that system of works by that verse.
What is faith is simply to believe what God has said.
Sitting talking to a student in the cafeteria one day and he said to me, well, I'll believe it when I see it. I said that won't be faith. Faith is to believe what God has said. To change the subject. I said, I see you walk to school all the time, why don't you get a drivers license and drive? He says, oh, I do have a drivers license. And I said, Oh yeah, I believe you. And I said, can I see it? And he showed it to me. I said, oh, you do have a driver's license. He said, you didn't believe me, did you?
And I think he had quite a hurt look in his eye, but he got the point is that we believe what God has said and we may get evidence later, but it really is to believe and to trust and to live in the light of what God has said. That is what faith is. And so it's founded on the Word of God.
There is nothing more honoring to God that one can do than to believe Him when He speaks, to receive it without hesitation.
You know, we've heard it said God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Well, whether you believe it or not, if God said it, that settles it. So we could change that order. Take God says it, that settles it, I believe it. And the definition of faith we have in the Bible is in John 3:3030He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30).
33.
This is really what faith is.
He that hath received.
His testimony?
God has said it. His testimony has set to his seal that God is true.
God can't lie. It's true. What he says is true. It's faith believes that.
And then drawing out from Martha on the 11Th of John.
Bringing our end to instruction in it.
The Lord said unto her, said I not unto thee, that I would believe thou should have seen. He was going to impress upon her that faith comes first, and then seeing it so, it is in the things of God.
And faith says, let God be true in every man be found a liar.
The whole of the true statement, that's a true statement. God is true, and every man's a liar. There's no one that's not liar. Let's believe God.
And prove what men say.
From a practical standpoint, something that we've noted in Scripture is one of the most beautiful examples of faith is when God expects us to count upon Him because of the consistency in which in the past He has acted towards his own.
How beautiful.
In other words, God has wants us to believe Him because He is consistent.
With in his own nature and we can count upon him to be consistent in the connection with what he has done for his people and, and in the minor prophets and all through Scripture, God pleased with his people on that basis that we can count upon God because of how he has acted in the past and we can count on him for the present. And if there's a future other than today, we can count on that too, can't we? Marvelous faith depend upon what God has done.
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In the 30th chapter of Proverbs is a word that would substantiate what you just said, Stanley. It says there every word of God is pure, and then it gives a wonderful promise.
And we saw it in the story of Job, this thing in action. He is a shield of them that put their trust in him.
And what a foundation this is. As we were speaking about faith, it's believing that every word of God is pure. There's the words of men that are not pure. And history only proves that to our dismay, but to our joy, the word of God like we get in this lovely chapter.
It struck me as you were saying that in the 116th, so I'm in connection. What what we were saying about all men being liars is that the difficulty is we look around and we judge things by sight and by our experience rather than by what the word of God says, and we have our eyes in the wrong place.
116th Psalm.
The psalmist makes a confession here in the 11 First he said, and I said in my haste, all men are liars. He was looking around at men and his experience taught him that there was no faithfulness and he had to come to that experience. And then he's LED into this beautiful 119th Psalm where he finds what you are saying is that every word of God is pure. And then what does that produce? It produces a sum of degrees where gradually.
He's brought in his soul's experience to the place where the Lord is, and so man needs to get his eyes off of man because he's going to come by experience to that.
Conclusion that all men are lawyers and the conclusion wasn't wrong, it simply was that he was looking at the wrong place. And then he found out that when he looked to the word of God and his soul rested in the word of God in that 119th Psalm that he found out that there were those that desired to walk in the pathway of faith and that he wasn't alone.
I think of the verse in connection with what's been said in one. John 59. John says, If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he hath testified at his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God, and this is how serious it is, hath made God a liar.
Because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. This is the testimony of God. To to question that, to say I believe in the sun, but I'm not sure I have eternal life is really tantamount to making God a liar because he says that.
You find it in the sun, don't you? You have life in the sun.
I think we have to explain the first verse of Chapter 11 in Hebrews. Then, from what has been said, that's really not a definition of faith, is it? It'll help us out.
I don't know whether I can explain that either, but I guess what I have enjoyed is that as our brother read to us in John's Gospel, we get a definition of faith there. But here we get more the results of faith in a practical way when it's operative in our lives.
Faith is believing God, but then here is the effect of it in our lives when it's exercised. Is that correct?
I don't want to.
Quote someone else out of place, but I can remember reading how Hudson Taylor when he was in China was very much encouraged by this verse, and while it doesn't perhaps give the complete thought, it was a real encouragement to my own soul, he said.
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When I see something, he said. I may be deceived by my sight.
He said I may see only the exterior of something, whereas I may not see the substance of it.
But he said when faith is in operation, he said, God gives me the realization of the substance of it in my soul.
And he said that is the wonderful thing about Christianity, that in the exercise of faith in what God has said, the Spirit of God ministers the things of Christ to my soul and gives them the substance in a way that mere sight could never quite do. Now again, that may be an oversimplification because of course, we long to see our blessed Savior. We long for faith to give place to sight. And I don't think Hudson Taylor was taking away from that. But nevertheless, I believe that.
In the degree in which we allow that faith to be operative in our lives and simply trust the Lord.
The Spirit of God does indeed minister the substance of those things to us.
In a richer and fuller way than even sight would give us.
Four verse 2.
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them, but the word preached did not prophecy profit them, not being mixed with faith?
And then that heard it well, we see that today of any I'd like to extinct the gospel of God and extend it more into the marvelous revelations we get after we're saying, but if there isn't faith mixed with it, we'll never never even be saved, to say nothing of understanding of the things of God.
And walking in them. That must be mixed with faith.
I'd like to ask the question that the 38th verse said. It said if any man draw back, what is the What is the substance of drawing back? It's apostasy.
That's an apostate, one that draws back. That's why the next verse is given. That's right. But we are not of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that believes to the saving of the soul. And that's why we need to be an exercise of soul before the Lord every morning, lest we get stumbled or lest we lose. But it's not. It's a lot more serious than just going on methraps in a cold way.
This is what you say in extreme. You would call it an extreme in that sense that it's an apostate. We are not of them who draw back unto perdition. We know that. We know, we believe, we know where the Lord's. There's no question in our minds. But he's dealing with a group of people in Hebrews that have made the profession of faith in Christ as Messiah. And some would draw back, some would give it up and go back to Judaism. And that's what he's talking about.
That's what the word apostate means. It's composed of two parts at to be without a position and it's to leave a position that once these ones are in the position of having professed Christianity. And now as you said, they left it and they went back to Judaism. Well, that is not true true believer that they may even get very careless in their souls and so that not even around can determine that they're Christians. The Lord knoweth them that are his. But for somebody who has drawn back or left the position gone on an outward way and left that it's it's somebody who never really had faith at all.
But outwardly, it appeared that they did.
Liver can never become an apostate. That's an impossibility.
But is it not in place to give a warning?
Because is it not possible that there might be those moving among us who make a profession and who are not real?
And such are in danger of.
Apostatizing from the faith, and it is impossible to renew to repentance such an one, according to Hebrews 6.
You know, we find that again and again in Hebrews warnings given for those who are only where they are by profession, outward profession, and by not seeing any results, you know, they're not in the actual possession of what Christianity offers to them. That is like with the Jews, you know, when they had.
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The possession of the land.
And those earthly blessings said they could see it, and he could lay hold of it in a carnal way, but by not.
Having what they had as Christians in that same way.
They would raise the question, where is the hope of his coming, you know, and they would be in danger of giving it up. And that is a possibility for one who moves among the gathered saying today.
You know, and if there is such a thing of apostatizing, there's no way of repenting. But let me say this too, I believe the spirit of apostasy.
My influence true believers whenever you or I embrace any aspect of the truth of God and then give it up.
That's the spirit of apostasy. We would not call such an one an apostate. But have we not experienced that, beloved? Have we not witnessed that, that those who were among us? We're not saying they're not believers, but they have thrown overboard many truths that they themselves have at one point confessed and taught. That's the spirit of apostasy.
Is right in this chapter and I think we ought to look at that we have been called together I don't know what the brethren put on the.
Invitation letter, but often an invitation to conference, as the 25th verse on it. And how wonderful that verse is for us, and to be called together. To be here says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
That day is the apostasy because the next verse says if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. That is apostasy there, and we can see evidences of it all around in a large House of Christendom which has received much of the knowledge of the Bible. And then they want to turn around and invent their own way of worship.
Shut God up behind the veil and have their own.
Choir and go back to anything that men can do well, it's a terrible thing. It's it's going to be worse, of course, when the willful king comes in the tribulation period. But the evidences of it the willful giving up of truth. What a serious thing it is in this decade in which we live.
Paul can say in second.
Epistle of Titus, first chapter. This knew also that all in Asia have turned away from me. They have not become apostates, perhaps, but they have had exercised the spirit of apostasy in giving up that which the apostle Paul taught and was so dear to him and.
I trust we can say it's very dear to us as well, that which we have from the apostle Paul especially.
Is Christianity and when we give up.
These precious things that we have, that have become precious to us.
As they did in those early days when the Apostle Paul himself was living.
John that later on, 30 years later said.
I have somewhat against it, because thou hast left thy first love.
And they were giving up the same thing. Christianity. Pure, simple.
Christianity.
There would be a danger that in trying to apply this, there may be a brother that was missing coming to the meetings. We need to be careful to distinguish what would be offensive in putting a brother in this predicament of that 28th and 29th verse. Is that right? That doesn't fit in that those verses, you're talking about a backslider and it's a backslide. You have to front slide first.
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You have to be saved, and then you backslide, but you haven't given up the profession of faith. You've gotten cold in your soul and you're not going on with the Lord. But an apostate is one who gives up the faith, who gives up that Jesus is the Messiah, goes back to Judaism.
That knows an apostate now, isn't it? We can't pronounce that we're not called to. We don't know if them better is. We don't. We ought to preach the gospel and expect every man to be saved.
But what's the other seal? Lord knoweth them that are his, and depart from iniquity.
Name is the name of the Lord depart from the nation.
It may be helpful to see why this is in Hebrews and not in one of the epistles to the church is because I think something that's generally not understood in Christendom is that a person can be in a place of privilege and responsibility and not have life. And so Paul is taking up with a company here of those that are in a place of privilege and responsibility. And every one of us in this room today are in a place of privilege and responsibility, though there may be some here that don't have life.
And so apostasy is to leave that sphere where there's privilege and responsibility and to go out and to forsake that. And so Paul takes up that question in Hebrews. He doesn't take that up in the Epistles to the churches because he doesn't admit that there are unbelievers in the church at all, because wicked persons and unbelievers are to be put outside of the church if a person's conduct is such that it does not agree with the profession of Christianity. But here in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he's talking to a company of those that are in a tremendous privilege.
Having been brought into a sphere where there's blessing. And so he's now Speaking of that. And so there's to be reality there. So if somebody discovers today that they're not real and they're in this company, the solution is not to leave it, but it's to get real. It's a front slide is that is to receive these things by faith. And so many of us sat in meetings and suddenly we realized, perhaps even prayed for our friends that they get saved. And we realized that we weren't saved ourselves and we got saved.
And that's a tremendous blessed thing. And so when we talk about apostasy, the only reason is, is so that if somebody's here and is not real, it's just to trust the Lord and take Christ as your Savior. And that's why Paul takes this up in Hebrews, because that condition exists.
While the Hebrews, the Jews, had a religion that was given of God, they were not. They were not like us Gentiles.
That have come into blessing. They had a religion that was given of God. The 10 commandments were written with the very finger of God-given to that people, and they had a very elaborate ritualistic system. And it would have been absolutely wrong for a Jew to abandon Judaism until the shepherd of the sheep came and entered the sheepfold which is Judaism.
And called his own sheep by name and LED them out of Judaism into Christianity.
And this is what he's dealing with now. He's dealing with his people that had outwardly embraced that Jesus is the true Messiah and they've come out to him. And their danger was to go back to the Judaism that they were once in, which was dripping with the blood of their Messiah. To go back with that and to say in so doing, you were right in crucifying him. I'm going to identify with that people that crucified him.
That's an apostate, and so we have to be very careful that we don't apply that to.
One that maybe just has gotten away from the Lord.
My mind is a little drawn to the 6th chapter of Judges and Gideon. The 11Th verse says Gideon thresh wheat by the winepress. Well, we have the wheat, the word of God in our hands, and our refreshing of the the wine should get this. Why then is all this befallen out of us? And what, where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of saying? Did not the Lord bring us out from Egypt?
And now the Lord has forsaken us. Well, he hasn't, but he goes on in his Gideon goes on in his deliverance for the Israel in the 16th, 16th verse. The Lord says to him, surely I will be with thee. We may have some questions, but if they're answered in faith and I I can't help but think of Gideon. We know that he asked for the police what he asked for the police dry there were the biscuits that fell in the camp.
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He had a hard time, but he was the Lord, and he's mentioned in Hebrews 11 here.
I want to point out that before we leave the 10th chapter, read that last verse again. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the to the saving of the soul. Now that's an issue that wasn't raised in the Old Testament. The salvation of the soul, that's that's New Testament truth. The salvation of the Old Testament is salvation from their enemies, their natural earthly enemies.
And they looked for that, and God didn't work salvation for them in that sense many times. But he's talking now about the salvation of the soul. That's something infinitely more important than just being saved from your enemies on earth, salvation of your soul.
Mr. Lundeen used to tell us that in the third chapter you get the progress of what we're being talked about.
You you find out there's three steps taken here. A Christian can commit the 1St 2 steps, but the last one he cannot. And that is the eighth verse of the third chapter of Hebrews says harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness that's hardening the heart. Christian can do that.
The 10th verse. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, or this generation.
That said, they do always in their hearts, and they have not known my ways. A Christian can do that. The 12Th verse of Christian cannot do that. This is apostasy. Take heed rather, lest there be in any of you an evil part of unbelief in departing from the living God. That's apostasy. A Christian cannot do that.
I just want to state it a little differently to emphasize the point.
In the Old Testament, to be a Jew was to be in the favored place, the privileged place that God had, where His Word was proclaimed and held, and so on.
To leave that would have been an apostate to Judaism, to what God had established. But once the the true shepherd came and grew and called his sheep out of that sheepfold.
It was unto something infinitely better, and that's Christian truth, Christian position, Christian blessing. And now for one to go back who was a Jew, to go back to Judaism now is apostasy from Christianity. It's apostasy from the highest revelation that God has ever made of himself in the person of his Son, a far higher revelation that that will then we have in the Old Testament.
Before the sun came, so he has now. To do that is to tread under foot the Son of God, and account the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified and unholy thing, and has done despite to the spirit of grace. Those are serious things, are they not? And those are what the apostate is guilty of.
Don't we have an example in Judas doing that very thing? Perhaps we can say he was the first apostate who went and bargained for to sell the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. And we are solemnized to think that Judas has many followers.
Down through this dispensation that have elected to do death spite to the Spirit of God's wonderful grace.
2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 is about the end of Christendom.
It says because for this reason.
Verse 11 And for this, 'cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth.
Who believe not the truth. That's the pinpoint of what it's about, unbelief in the truth of God. And yet professing to be in that position. Is that right?
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To another statement. Not loving the truth, you know.
The truth, how important that is, you know, it's true, like a brother, Bob said about believing, not believing. But do we love the truth? You know, someone has said it's one way of laying hold of the truth. We can do that even intellectually. But the truth playing hold of us, that's quite a difference, isn't it? And to really embrace.
By faith, the truth, and loving it because it is God's goodness that has given it to us. And I was thinking too, beloved brethren, that why is the Epistle to the Galatians of such great importance to us?
Because this was, you might say, one step towards apostatizing from the Christian faith by bringing Jewish principles into Christianity, you know, bringing the principle of the law and circumcision to the Gentiles. Where will it end? Where will it end? You know it will end in apostasy, you know, once you start embracing any aspect of Judaism.
You will be in danger. I'm Speaking of profession now, of becoming an apostate. You know, we have to realize that the Good Shepherd did not only lead his sheep out. I remember Brother Gordon made the difference between putting forth his sheep. There seemed to be a more forceful statement. You know, he has let his own sheep out of that Jewish fold, never to return. And then he has sheep which are not of this fault that you and I, the Gentiles.
And there is one flock and one shepherd, and safety and Christianity is not to subscribe and submit to rules and regulations, but to clinging closely to the shepherd. That's where safety and security is found.
A statement by leaders in Christendom. You hear it all the time. The judeo-christian tradition or the judeo-christian faith?
Putting the two together, well, Christianity is so different than Judaism. Judaism was a religion for man after the flesh. It held out the promise of earthly blessings. And Christianity is heavenly blessings, spiritual blessings. For Israel, it was temporal blessings. It was physical things.
God promised a prosperous farm, good produce.
And health and strength down here. We're not promised those things. Those are all earthly and temporal, but our blessings are all eternal and spiritual and heavenly. Christianity is as different from Judaism as day is from night, and to put them together as men do is a gross mistake. Most of what much I'll be a little more conservative. Much of what passes in Christendom for Christianity is not Christianity at all.
It's Judaism.
When we were first gathered, the truth was brought before us. At least I enjoyed it very much. And that is that Judaism was the was the sheep fold. And the brother here has just mentioned all of the blessings that came, but those blessings came with a fence around them. You were you were hemmed in. But when we are free from that and when we know the Lord Jesus Christ his Savior, he says there shall be a new flock.
I don't think there's a new truth by any matter of means, but it's we are gathered unto a person.
And the flock looks up to him as the head. We don't lookout to see all the things that bind us in, but when he looked to the head to encourage and help us.
It's nice to see that by information in that 38th verse that God does have pleasure in each one of His own.
That kind of leads us to the second verse of the 11Th chapter by hit the elders obtained a good report and there are many that want to please the Lord, but it's a matter of striving for the mastery lawfully. That is that we believe and we act according to the principles of the word of God. And so there are many today that.
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And our hearts may be filled with good motives, so to speak, but they are not according to the word of God, and it leads to failure.
And so this is what he's setting out, I believe at the outset of this chapter is that it's by faith, it's believing what God has said.
Contrary to all that, we see that a good report is to be obtained.
And the pleasure is found. There's a lovely thought from what you bring up in that second verse in Mr. Darby's translation. It says for in the power of this, in the power of this, the elders obtained a good report or a good testimony. It was in the power of that faith. And that's what makes it so real.
You might say that you and I have who have professed faith are filling out our report card all through this life of faith. And what's it going to be at the end?
There's a good report at the end of this chapter.
Might just notice that a good report in the second verse and a good report in the 39th verse, these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. That's perfection, body, soul and spirit. That's eternal life. That last verse, we're going to get it.
We ought to enjoy it now.
So we need to walk the life of faith to please God.
That's why there's a reward for those that love the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because.
They're looking for the report card, not the reward. And the principle of Judaism was to see the reward for a life of faithfulness. As you were saying, there was prosperity and blessing here on earth. And these ones didn't look for that, but they looked for the good report. And so there's a reward to love the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ when he'll say, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Is that why at first Peter speaks about the trial of your faith? It says thou art be tried with fire, might be found unto something. I think I've mentioned three things, praise, honor, and glory at its appearing that our brother Clem referred to and that you bring before us. The appearing is when the Lord Jesus will be glorified in his Saints in a way that will bring to light all of what brother Clemry mentioned about the report card, but.
You know, the report card leads to graduation day, and I like to think of graduation day as His appearing when all of these things would be revealed for his, his glory. And like you might say, I would put it in the shade of it. Our reward. But what a reward, brother, to see him glorified and exonerated before the universe.
Well, brethren, we don't have to spend billions of dollars and send satellites up in the sky to understand creation.
Through faith, we understand. We're going to get any understanding about this universe.
We're going to get it from the one who made it. Through faith, we understand that the world's were framed by the word of God.
Let's see.
Trying to think of a verse in the psalms about he speaking. It was done something like that. 33rd Psalm.
Read it.
That's in Psalm 33.
Verse 6 By the word of the Lord, where the heavens made, and all the hosts of them, by the breath of His mouth He gather at the waters of the sea together as in heap He layeth up the depth in storehouses. Not all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. Now here it is, for he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
Beautiful verses. In order to understand creation, you have to believe in a creator. There's no other way.
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He is before all things, and by Him all things consist and subsist. What a wonderful God we have.
It really shows that the awfulness of not believing and submitting and obeying the word of God, because he spoke and said he made the stars also, and the universe was filled with stars. And yet you see Pharaoh, he said, I will not obey the Lord.
And you know, we can have that same part of unbelief in our in ourselves.
There's another verse with understanding it I'd like to read to enjoy.
In the first Epistle of John.
And the next to the last verse.
I believe a few verses were read out of this chapter, but this 20th verse is one of the most.
Wonderful verses we can think about, it says. We know.
Now that's true conscious knowledge.
First John 520 We know that the Son of God is come.
It does say he came here. It doesn't say he's coming. He says he is come. That is, Jesus came and became a man and remains a man. He is come. He's taken manhood on. He is God.
But then the product of that is and hath given us an understanding. It's given to us by this One who came. God made manifest in the place.
We know he is common, that he hath given us an understanding.
What for? That we may know him that is true, the true God. We have been Speaking of Him.
God is true, Jesus is the truth because he is a declaration of God.
And we are in him. Do you believe that that is?
Truth now intimate.
I wonderful that God has taken us into this.
Life here we are in him. That is true even in his Son Jesus Christ.
He is the Son of God, He is Jesus Christ. He is come.
Even in his son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God.
Whether that Speaking of the Son or the Father doesn't say one God.
Then what do you say, little children? Keep yourselves from islands, keep away from these other things that would lead you to some something else, lead you back to Judaism or into the law or anything else? Well, there's only one place, brethren, where there's liberty. Now. Every believer sitting here or anywhere in the world only has one that's over him. That's gone.
Liberty, Liberty. You join any organization, you get somebody over you.
But the Christian has full liberty. So as we were Speaking of the 10th of.
John, they shall go in and out and find pasture. The liberty is the liberty of the Holy Spirit, the liberty of the new Spirit. I should say liberty to do his will. What's the new life that we have delight to do? The perfect law of liberty of James says so. What a multitude of things that are given to us to understand through our faith. We understand that the world's were framed by the word of God.
He spake and it was done. This is our God, and He brings us into union with him, into this life.
Now he wants, he wants us to walk by faith. We've still got to walk by faith.
But we don't walk along. He goes with us. As we read this morning in Hebrew in Philippians 4, The Lord is at hand. Now you can look at your own hand. That's how close the Lord is to you. We don't have to walk alone, but we do and are expected to walk the life of faith. Believe God.
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There are three steps in connection with *******. One is ******* the other is deliverance, and the other is liberty. But we must make sure that the source of the deliverance is if the sun therefore shall make you free, you should be free indeed.
Too often there isn't a release from something that we may have been ******* under. And we say, oh, I'm free from that ******* but we may be in a worse *******. But it says, if the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. So there's there's ******* there's deliverance, and then there's liberty. But there's only liberty when it's the sun that has made you free.
That's so important that my brother gave a fellow a Bible at work. He offered him a Bible and he said, would you read this book? And he said, why would I want to read that book? Everything it tells me to do, I don't want to do, and everything I want to do, it tells me I shouldn't. Well, he had no desire to please the Lord. He wasn't saved. And perhaps even as a believer, if we're not really walking with the Lord, we feel that way. But if there's a desire to please the Lord, that every light that we get from Genesis to the end of Revelation has helped to us in doing that, and we're free.
That's what real liberty is, Mr. Darby said of the Lord, that if it was possible to take away the Lord's liberty, it would to have been to stop him from doing his Father's will. And that's what's really going to make us happy. And now the book now is not against us, it's not some rules against things we want to do, but it's helped for us to walk in the pathway of faith and to please the Lord, which will make us happy.
But when we were alienated from God, though maybe not Jews, and under the law, it just seemed that it condemned everything we wanted to do because we didn't really have a nature to to please the Lord.
And then, as you say, if there's a bad conscience there and the word of God is condemning what I'm doing, I feel like a great sigh of relief that I get out from under it by getting away from it. But that's not liberty.
When Israel heard the law, they said all that the Lord had spoken. We will do and obey.
They acknowledged it was good.
It was righteous, it was a good rule of life, and they thought they had the power to do it. But they didn't, and down deep in heart, they didn't want to either.
But outwardly, man will acknowledge that it's a good law.
Best law that's ever been given to man.
The rule of life for man. We have something higher. We have the life of Christ, We follow Him.
I'd like to ask a question about the third verse that says through faith we understand that the world's were framed and that word framed is, if not the exact word, it's a very similar word to where they were repairing their Nets. Why is that aspect of the world being framed by the word of God brought out in this chapter?
That's a good question.
There were those that of the disciples that cast the net into the sea, they'd be the evangelists. And then there were those like John and James that repaired the net. You can't catch many fish if the Nets got holes in it, right? So they, they repaired the net so that when the evangelist cast the net into the sea, the fish wouldn't escape through the holes. And so they mended the net. They put it back into, they restored it to its.
Perfect state as mended. And that's the thought here. It's the word perfection that is the thought here, where it says we're framed by the word of God.
The universe didn't result from an explosion of chaos. It's not a chaotic scene. It's a perfectly ordered thing. It's God perfecting everything that he has done. He framed it. It's it's perfect order, and it's all consistent with himself. It's not chaos and disorder.
That's that shows you that the second verse of Genesis 1 is not the state that the world was originally created in. It fell into that the The first verse gives you the original creation. In the beginning, God created the heavens of the earth that was perfect, but then it fell into a state of.
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Chaos as a result of judgment. But when God created the universe, it was perfect. I think that's the thought of frames.
Verses that we read in Psalm 33 refers to the original creation and what is precious to our souls is to think that this vast universe was spoken into existence.
And it didn't take God.
A vast period of time.
To create the universe. And I chose to ask the greatness of the Creator. He could have taken millions and billions of years in various stages to make what we see, but it wouldn't make him quite as great in our eyes, would it?
Then to realize that he spoke it into existence. There was nothing before.
People speak of eternal matter. That's nonsense. There's no such a thing as eternal matter.
God created it and He spoke it into existence. He created out of himself.
Vast universe, you know what they have now, the means of looking into it further and further, and then you realize more, more the greatness of the one that created it all by his word. But when it comes to redemption, you know he couldn't accomplish redemption in that way. The Creator had to come into this world to become our savior, our Redeemer.
How great that person is, you know, and then to think of the love to rescue creatures such as we were, rebellious creatures, to rescue us and to bring us back to himself on a righteous basis. He had to come into this world, become a man in order to go to the cross and die for us. You know, he couldn't speak us into salvation, if I may put it that way. He had to himself come lay down his life.
Make atonement for sin and create a righteous basis for us to be brought back to Himself.
Pick up what you said, brother Stan and Chuck, because I think it's very important that we understand that because it's understanding that we need in connection with creation. And as my friend, their student with the drivers license. If we start to get scientific and try to explain exactly how we think the universe came, instead of believing what has been brought before us here this morning and what we find in the record of Genesis, then our faith is resting on the words of man's wisdom, not on what the word of God says. And it brings everything into confusion. And many Christians have gotten taken up.
Of trying to get into all kinds of scientific explanations as to what happened and when it happened and how. And in so doing, they missed the real understanding of what those first verses of Genesis bring before us. And I think that that's why it's so beautiful what you pointed out here in connection with that word. Through faith, we understand that the world were framed, as you pointed out there, the meaning of that word, by the word of God, what God was doing. And if we get taken up with science to try to explain it, then our faith is not resting on the word of God, but on the words of man's wisdom.
And what some science scientists who may be a Christian has discovered, and he may discover many interesting things, but he's going to miss the real understanding what God is doing and moving in creation. I think that that's so important, what you pointed out and so helpful.
There's another There's another verse in Hebrews 10 that uses that same Greek word, and it's in verse 5. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not.
But the body has thou prepared me. It's the word prepared. And again it's it's that same word in first Corinthians one he the the translators translated it that should be perfectly joined together in one mind perfectly joined together, perfected in one mind. Here the body that was prepared for the Lord Jesus is was perfectly joined together, if you will, everything in perfection and the universe too. The same word that's used whenever it says framed.
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His body is never spoken of as being created, but.
Joined together or prepared of God. I don't think he's ever called a creature. The Spirit of God avoids that. He did take the creatures place when he became a man, but it never says he was a creature. He's the creator isn't he? And we must never forget that. And he came into his own creation and when he did that, he was the first born, the preeminent 1.
I suppose all of this brings out something that really explains.
Why there is such resistance to all of this, first of all by the natural man, and secondly, even by believers in walking the pathway of faith. And that is, it brings us into the realm of that which is beyond human understanding, doesn't it? If you tell a man that this world was created 20 billion years ago, or whatever figure, you might arrive at his mind, even though he could never in any way have a lifetime that would encompass that, or even history that would tell him anything about it.
Yet somehow his mind can get around that, but tell him that God framed this world out of nothing and that brings him into a realm that is totally beyond his understanding.
Then bringing it down to believers. When we read this chapter, we find that everyone.
In the exercise of his faith had to be taken in that sense, beyond even what you might say the written revelation was. In fact, many of these here lived before there was written revelation. They had to have a personal, you might say, relationship with God Himself in order to walk by faith. That's why even believers sometimes find it difficult to reconcile the truth of eternal security with the fact that we are entitled to judge.
By the fruit in a believer's life, whether he is real or not, it brings us into the realm that our brother Buchanan was mentioning that ultimately.
I cannot determine who is an apostate. I may have a good idea, but ultimately I have to come back to that verse.
The Lord knoweth them that are His. How many times have I heard from various Saints of God and raised the question in my own soul? How can I know the Lord's mind in an individual situation in my life?
In the Old Testament they had the law, and man would still like to go back to that as a rule of life, as they did in Galatia and the assemblies there, because in one sense it made matters easier.
But how much more wonderful to live by faith. But then I must be walking with the Lord. I can't talk about knowing the Lord's mind without bringing my state of soul into the picture. And that brings in a dimension, perhaps that's also beyond explanation in human terms or human parameters. Well, these are wonderful things into which we are brought. And you and I in this dispensation have the wonderful privilege of having this whole revelation of the mind of God.
But it all has to be appropriated and lived in by faith, as our brother Buchanan was mentioning that quote. Everything that you and I have and that we will always have is that which we have gotten by faith.
Perhaps someone could help us to understand?
And you were here at the world, so we can look at this earth, and we can see how God has.
Put it in place in which man can enjoy it and live in it. But it says worlds and when we look out in space, doesn't it look like a massive confusion? So the the word came out that, well, God is a God of order and not of confusion. That was what was represented here. How do we reconcile looking out into a space like that and seeing more that are falls of confusion?
When I look at the starry sky, I see confusion.
I don't agree with that. I think that it's beautiful.
It's God's creation, but I don't see confusion there. But I think the thought of the world is the universe. It's a Hebrewism for the universe, the world.
Now in connection with Revelation, I going on to this fourth verse is that I think it's so beautiful here because it's brought in. A statement has been made. Don't let the things that you don't understand spoil the things that you do. And you see what these individuals like Abel and Enoch, that they acted based on what they knew. How was it that Abel knew what was an appropriate sacrifice? He didn't have, as somebody said, the revelation of God, but he didn't know that when his parents sinned that God took an animal, killed it and made a cloak. So that faith gave him an intelligent understanding.
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Of what was acceptable to God and what is sin required. And it doesn't go into a great deal of difficulty, but we can see that and we can see intrinsically.
That what Cain offered to God was not a recognition based on what God had revealed of himself up until that point. We see that with Enoch the 7th from Adam who testified of judgment. Why is it that he was translated by faith? It was because he knew that the only way that God could correct the situation in the world is by bringing righteous judgment upon the earth, and that as having trusted God that he couldn't be part of that scene of judgment.
Now how is it that Moses parents knew to put him in a Mart into an ark? What did what word of God did they have? They didn't have the five books of Moses to read. They didn't have anything to read, but they knew that when there was a family that needed to be preserved through a watery judgment that God caused Noah to prepare an ark. So it says Moses parents, they took an ark. They simply acted on based on what revelation that they had. Now here we sit in this room today and we have the complete revelation of God.
And so we can, we ought to be familiar with it and act on the basis of that. But even these ones, the little, if I may put it that way, the little bits of revelation that they had, they acted in consistency with that. And that's what faith was.
And is.
Amen. We did before going leaving verse three. We didn't comment on the end of verse 3.
So that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. How are we to understand that?
What does that mean?
Should I read Mr. Darby on that? Mister Darby gives us a thought here that I think gives some light on what Chuck suggests, so that so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appeared.
And it gets back to this thing that a man likes to see where everything comes from. He thinks he can get a telescope to find out where it came from. And then somebody else tells him, well, it was a big explosion, you know, and there all the pieces fell in place and all that kind of foolish conjecture. But, you know, when you build a house, you don't build it with an explosion. You train it the things that are seen. But here it goes beyond that. And it says God framed the universe with things that were not seen.
And that's where faith says praise the Lord. I just believe it. And God said it and I believe it.
Years ago, a Russian by the name of Mendeleev recognized that he could put a certain elements of like fluorine, fluorine and bromine. He could see that they could fit into families. Well those of us that that know about that is called a periodic chart.
And there's maybe 100 and five 106, I forget some of them have very short life, but they're all in a beautiful array and.
God merely spoke the word. I was at someone's home not too long ago and I got a delivery of wood and they're going to make a cabinet. And so they have to get all of these things and the nails and the glue and so on. But here things that are seen were not made of things which do appear.
God independent of the periodic chart, if you will, and the families of nitrogen and and chlorine and the elements and the metals and and the and the in between metals, God simply spoke.
A storehouse like Solomon did to build the temple.
So that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear and yet.
God has given us to see in his creation an order that is consistent with Himself, and we can see it in the Word of God. Can't wait. Think of how beautifully arrayed the Word is. And so if we can see it first that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.
I'd like to take up a little bit with your reading of Mr. Darby there, and I don't want to press this thought too much, but sometimes when somebody speaks to the Sunday School children, they have what's called an object lesson, and so they go about looking for an object to illustrate a point. But with God it worked the other way around. He had a purpose in his heart, and so He constructed a universe in which every object was going to be useful to him to display what was in his heart before He made it. And so he had the thought of the lamb before he made lamb.
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And he had the thought of the relationship of Christ and the church before he made Adam and Eve. And so his eternal power and Godhead are seen in the things that he's created. And so the purposes and the intentions in God's heart came before the universe, the physical universe that was created. And so that the objects there were ordered in such a way that he could perfectly take up with them and illustrate what was in his heart.
I don't want to go too far with that thought, but it seems a wonderful thing to me is that they had their origin and things that were not created but really were.
Was in the thought of God, and then he took up and he created. He even ordered these stars and the placement of the stars so that long time ahead of time so that those wise men from the East could look up and say we saw a star in the East. That he put the stars there in exactly the right place. And everything is ordered in such a way that God could take up with it and use it in that way.
Of which this book is the instruction for us currently.
He had.
A sacrifice.
For Abel, before he brought him into existence, because God was going to get praise that glorified his Son, and it had to be, according to God, a more excellent sacrifice. And we better be a little bit careful about our worship.
Do we follow God?
Way into the holiest of all. And when we get there, do we have something to offer?
Twice in the Old Testament least.
The Israelites being prepared in the days of the Tabernacle to come before God, he said to them, See that none of you appear before me, empty You, and I have a wonderful privilege of worship, and it has to be according to God to suit him.
So the sacrifice is the Lamb slain, and the blood.
106.
106.