Expecting judgement

 

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. - Hebrews 10.26-27

 

This is a tough passage because at first glance it can seem like it goes contrary to the doctrine of eternal security. God talks here about those who sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge can only expect judgment.

 

Its not a nice thing to think about. God is love. God is patient. God loved the world so much He sent His Son to die for us. God is slow to anger. God wants everyone to be saved. But one day it will be too late. One day judgement will come

 

Those who wilfully continue to sin and ignore God’s pleading, hope is gone and the only thing they can expect is God’s judgement.

 

What a horrible prospect and want makes it worse is that too many Christians have the answer and refuse to share the answer.

 

It is our task to help others avoid that horrible expectation.

The assembling

 

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. - Hebrews 10:24-25

 

What a powerful reminder for the time we are in. I doubt this has ever had the impact that it has had this year and I doubt it ever will again.

 

Let us consider one another we will be led to help each other by love and good works. That’s great and we an do that no matter what happens.

 

But then we are told the importance of assembling together to build each other up. That’s been tough this year when we’ve only been able to meet a few times. It is what we do. That is who we are. It is really simple, God’s people meet together. We are the church and the church assembles together. We fellowship. We break bread together. We sing. We hear God’s word.

 

This is probably the greatest frustration I have ever dealt with in ministry. In many places all over the world we have compelled by law and other circumstances to not meet. This ought to be the most unusual and uncomfortable time for God’s people. The church meets together and we are not doing it.

 

Thank God for the means to stay in touch, but it is not being together.

 

What is the church going to do? 

 

Somehow we find a way to keep on going. We are steadfast and immovable and abounding in God’s work. Our labour, whatever we can do, is not in vain.

 

May God give us wisdom during this most unusual and unnatural time.

In full assurance

 

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water – Hebrews 10.19-23

 

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God Born of His spirit, washed in His blood.

 

What a blessing to know that I never have to walk in fear or doubt of my future. I can have the blessed assurance that by faith by conscience has been made clear that my whole being has been and should be daily cleansed by the word of God.

 

I don’t have to wonder about my future. My eternity is secure. That blessed assurance gives me day by day and with each passing moment strength to meet my trials here. I’ve no cause to worry or to fear. The task is done and the blessing to me is that blessed assurance that I am His and He is mine.

 

No matter what else, in Christ I can have full confidence and full assurance that my eternity is not under threat.

A new and living way

 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water – Hebrews 10.19-23

 

The law was a cut and dry religious system. There was no real and abiding hope. Man knew what sin was, he knew to avoid it, he knew what the penalty was, and by faith he trusted the promise that one day the full price would be paid.

 

But then Jesus came and said I am the way, the truth, and the life. The old legal was has been done away and now we have Jesus, a new and living way. No wonder the early church called themselves The Way because they has a new way, a new life, and new hope, a new future, and a new eternity through the way the way, the truth, and the life.

 

The way now is alive with me and He walks with and He talks with and He tells me I am His own. The joy we share as we tarry here on earth none other has ever known.

 

He is alive. He is the way.

He is my life. He is my way.

 

Praise God for the new and living way.

I will remember no more

 

then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. – Hebrews 10.17-18

 

Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

 

That’s an amazingly powerful statement. God knows everything. He cannot not remember. To do so He chooses to disremember. He chooses to not remember my sins as He buries them in the depths of the sin.

 

It is hard for us to not remember our own sin. Our guilt eats us up. Our consciences are not clear. When we think that way we are pretty useless in our service. Satan would have us be dragged down or held back the remembrance of our sin. It makes us always feel unworthy of Christ and His love.

 

I can almost imagine a conversation when we meet Jesus. I don’t it will happen but it might picture how it is.

 

Me: Oh Jesus, I am so sorry the times that I got at people and said bad things.

Jesus: What things? I don’t remember that!

Me: I am so sorry for that time I went to that party and lost control of myself and did those horrible things?

Jesus: What party? I don’t remember that.

Me: But Jesus, what about that time I drew away from You and stopped going to church?

Jesus: When? I don’t remember that

Me: And all those times I had all those terrible thoughts?

Jesus: Thoughts? What thoughts?

 

And we could go on for hours. What a relief to know that Jesus forgives our sins and then does something we can’t do – He chooses to not remember them!

 

Why then do we keep walking around in defeat and despair? Jesus has forgiven and forgotten. Isn’t it time to let those things go?

Set Apart

 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. – Hebrews 10.10-14

 

There are a lot of really special aspects of salvation. We are redeemed and justified and declared right and regenerated and receive remission of sin at the cross.

 

I like this word as well – we are sanctified. It’s a word that is often misunderstood or misused or misapplied.

 

It’s a simple word. It just means to be set apart.  It means that we are separated from the ways of the world and we are separated to God Himself. We see first set apart at salvation. When we die we will be totally set apart. In the meantime we ought to be living in such a way that we separate from the world daily and we draw ourselves closer to Him.

 

But for now, back to the start, let’s look at the ‘once for all’ aspect of sanctification. This is what Jesus did when He saved us. At one instant He changed everything. We were bound to the world with no hope of reaching God. In an instant We had full access to God and our ties to the world were cut.

 

That’s a done deal, once and for all.  It can never be reversed or cancelled out.Set Apart 

Once to die

 

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. – Hebrews 9.27-28

 

There is an Agatha Christie novel called ‘Death Comes at the End.’ That’s a great title because it really states as great truth. Death does come at the end, but...not quite. There is something after the end. And that something makes all the difference.

 

It is indeed appointed to all me – but after that, just as sure, is the judgement.

 

That’s a sobering, but it need not be a fearful thought. Indeed, judgement will come for our sins. Every man must face up to this judgement.

 

Those who face the judgement without Christ are doomed to an eternity of separation from God, of eternal suffered and damnation, of eternal spiritual death – because the wages of sin is death.

 

But for those of us who have had our sins remitted by Jesus Christ there is hope. He took our judgement on the cross. Our eternity with God is secured. We need not fear death because we need not fear the judgement that follow.

 

Once to die – but there’s more. Are we ready for the more?

Remission

 

And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. – Hebrews 9.22

 

Under the legal system of sacrifices blood sacrifice were often used as a purifying sacrifice. The people were used to that so they understood the picture a lot better than I do.  It was a good system, but it could never be perfect or complete. It could never cancel out our great sin debt.

 

Why? Because the remission of sin requires a perfect sacrifice. That’s pictured in the sacrificial system because the animal sacrificial animals all had to be flawless.

 

If a non-perfect blood sacrifice could remit sins I could do it myself. But how could a sinful man remit sins? The answer is obvious! Because he can’t!

 

But Jesus’ blood was perfect. It was not infected with sin and its curse. Without that perfect sacrifice you and I would still be dead in our sins.

 

People don’t like to talk about blood, but the truth in clear, if it weren’t for the blood of Jesus we would have no hope. Because of the blood we have full assurance.

With His own blood

 

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. - Hebrews 9:12

 

The Old Testament sacrifice was a hugely complicated system. It required all sor5s of blood sacrifices from all kinds of animals. These sacrifices were a short term symbolic picture of the perfect sacrifice that would. These sacrifices could never truly cleanse man’s sin.

 

Jesus’ sacrifice was different.

 

He sacrificed His own blood

He entered the Holy Place once and for all

He obtained eternal salvation.

 

We know that this was something Jesus did not relish. He knew that cost and even asked the Father to take it away, but He submitted to the Father’s will.

 

What amazing love. My redemption cost Jesus His blood and He shed it willingly, for me. He entered the Holy Place so I could enter the Holy Place.

 

And He obtained eternal salvation for me. Eternal salvation. Forever. There is no way I have the power to cancel anything that is eternal.  No one can take it from me. Eternal is eternal. Full stop.

A clear conscience

 

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? – Hebrews 9.13-15

 

There is not much more precious than having a clear conscience. All kinds of things keep us from having a clear conscience. Worry and doubt and guilt. There are few things better than facing an new day with a clear conscience. We don’t want to enter a difficult situation with a clouded conscience. We surely don’t want to live our lives with a clouded conscience.

 

It would be lovely to say ‘I am acting in clear conscience’ as we make choices through each day, but I think that is a rare thing to do if I am not do doing the works of the true and living God. My conscience is clear, not because I have done anything about it, but because it cleared by the blood of Jesus Christ. Reliance on that is only possible as I rely on Him because I will never be able to satisfy myself that I have done enough.

 

Lets be sure that as we go out today we do so with clear minds and clear consciences to serve God effectively.

A better covenant

 

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. - Hebrews 8:6

 

Everything changed with the cross. Suddenly man had a better covenant with God and we had a more excellent mediator. The one and only mediator between God and man to mediate the perfect covenant

 

A better mediator, a better covenant, and better promises.

 

I am amazed at the power and the blessings of the great truth that we, as sinners, have a perfect mediator between us and our prefect holy God. The mediator went a step beyond. He was unique because He sealed the covenant with His own blood.

 

This covenant was superior because it is not a temporary covenant full of conditions. This covenant is complete – signed, sealed and delivered.

 

The permanence of this gift is such a blessing with so many blessings we will see in the next few verses.

 

The grace covenant has changed everything for the better. My promise of eternity is secure in my Mediator and nothing can change that.

Once

 For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. - Hebrews 7:26-27

 

We have a high priest who is

 

Holy

Harmless

Undefiled

Separate from sinners

Higher than the heavens

Who does not need to daily offer up sacrifices for His own

Does not need to daily offer up sacrifices for our sins

But who did it once

 

Once! And it was done forever

 

Religion tells us that we have to keep doing and doing and doing. It tells that if we don’t keep doing we can never be really sure of our salvation.

 

But for the believer it was sorted once and for all on the cross. It is finished. There is nothing more that we can do. When we ‘do' now it is because of what He did, once, forever and for always.

 

Thank you Lord for a once for always salvation. 

Perfect

 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. – Hebrews 7.18-19

 

It must have been a difficult time in the early church. Many of the new believers were Jews who had spent their whole lives trying and struggling to keep the law. It was all they did. It was at the centre of literally everything they did.

 

It must have been really hard for them to just lay that aside. It must have been hard to switch over a live by grace admit that we are now made perfect without any effort on our own.

 

But what a relief it must have been when they realised that it was all true. They were freed from the Law. The Law had done its job. It had been the schoolmates to draw them to Christ, and now that it had done that it no longer had dominion over them. The Law was done and they were liberated. 

 

The Law could make nothing perfect – but Jesus could

Our anchor

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil - Hebrews 6:18-19

 These are troubled and tumultuous times. Every news bulletin brings more craziness. Between Covid and politics it is hard to know what is coming next. Stability is the last thing we think about in these times.

 But that’s just the way it is, isn’t it? There never has been any stability. There is no stability. There never will be any stability in this present world. It’s a slippery road with all kinds of pitfalls.

 Everyone would love to have something to anchor to.

 Ships use anchors to keep them stable during storms. Climbers use anchors for security on the mountain. We use anchors to secure things in place.

 Greater than all that though is that our in Jesus Christ is the anchor of our souls.

 But actually, I don’t think I can say it any better than the great old hymn.

 

1. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
   When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
   When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
   Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

o   Refrain:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.

2. It is safely moored, ’twill the storm withstand,
   For ’tis well secured by the Savior’s hand;
   And the cables, passed from His heart to mine,
   Can defy that blast, through strength divine.
3. It will surely hold in the straits of fear,
   When the breakers have told that the reef is near;
   Though the tempest rave and the wild winds blow,
   Not an angry wave shall our bark o’erflow.
4. It will firmly hold in the floods of death,
   When the waters cold chill our latest breath;
   On the rising tide it can never fail,
   While our hopes abide within the Veil.
5. When our eyes behold through the gath’ring night
   The city of gold, our harbor bright,
   We shall anchor fast by the heav’nly shore,
   With the storms all past forevermore.

He obtained a promise

 

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

 – Hebrews 6.15

I love the story of Abraham and Sarah. It is a beautiful love story with joys and struggles and weaknesses and flaws. But mostly it is a story of faith. Not perfect faith maybe, but real faith.

Abraham had been promised that God would use His to build a great nation. His descendants would be as many as the sands on the seashore and the stars in the sky.

 But decades passed. Abraham foolishly tried to help God out. But still he waited. He waited until he and Sarah were nearly 100. Of course, now they were well behind their child bearing years.

 Now, of all times, an angel appears to tell that Sarah is going to bear the long-promised son. Abraham must have been stunned and Sarah laughed, either in dismay or with joy.

 But sure enough the day came and barren Sarah bore a son. God fulfilled His promise to Abraham.

And He will fulfill his promise to us – stay true, stay faithful, and wait for God to fulfil His promise.

He obtained that promise

 

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

 – Hebrews 6.15

 

I love the story of Abraham and Sarah. It is a beautiful love story with joys and struggles and weaknesses and flaws. But mostly it is a story of faith. Not perfect faith maybe, but real faith.

 

Abraham had been promised that God would use His to build a great nation. His descendants would be as many as the sands on the seashore and the stars in the sky.

 

But decades passed. Abraham foolishly tried to help God out. But still he waited. He waited until he and Sarah were nearly 100. Of course, now they were well behind their child bearing years.

 

Now, of all times, an angel appears to tell that Sarah is going to bear the long-promised son. Abraham must have been stunned and Sarah laughed, either in dismay or with joy.

 

But sure enough the day came and barren Sarah bore a son. God fulfilled His promise to Abraham.

 

And He will fulfil his promise to us – stay true, stay faithful, and wait for God to fulfil His promise.

Don't get sluggish

 

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. – Hebrews 6.11-12

 

Be diligent and don’t become sluggish, God says.

 

I know that word sluggish. My position where I teach has moved for teaching to Covid management. I’m a perfect, a hall monitor, a Covid cop. Mostly it means I sit and monitor activity.

 

In the time period after lunch I can find myself feeling very sluggish. Tuesday a week abo I was about to fall asleep.

 

What do you do when you are feeling sluggish? You either give in and take a nap or who get up and get active. So I picked myself up, the centre was quiet, and I went outside for a walk.

 

The same is true with spiritual sluggishness. Sometimes we can get all droopy eyed and lethargic and all that. Either we get up and do something or we are going to fall asleep. A lot of folks it seems have chosen the later and are dozing spiritually. I can find myself there at times.

 

The answer is to get up and do something about it. We can’t just sluggish sit there in our spiritual easy chair and dose while the world passes by.

 

Now it is high time to wake up out of our sluggishness, kit up in His armour, and do His work.

 

Don’t doze off. Wake up. Stay diligent.

God does not forget

 

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. – Hebrews 6.10

 

Ever feel alone and forgotten. Ever feel that it doesn’t do any good and no one even notices. The writer of Hebrews encourages us with the words that God is not unjust to forget our work and the labour of love that we have done in His name by ministering to His saints.

 

It may very well be that none of us seeing these words will ever be written about in a book. None of us are going to receive rewards on a human stage.

 

But that’s not want really counts, is it? God remembers. We never need feel forgotten. He has seen everything we have done as we have tried to serve Him. He knows our successes and our failures. He has seen all of our hurts and pains. He sees and remembers all the tears we have shed. At those loneliest of lonely moments God is remembering us.

Never stop learning

 

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, - Hebrews 6.1

 

Wouldn’t it be nice, is some ways, to just learn our ABCs and leave it there? It sure would be a lot less complicated. What if we only had to learn to count to ten and maths would be done?

Life isn’t like that though. Eventually, as wonderful as ABC and 123 are, we have to move on to more important things.

It is sad that so many of God’s children get the very basics of salvation and are happy to stay there. It’s a nice comfortable place, isn’t it? Learning more takes a lot of work and most of us would rather shy away from hard work.

 But if we don’t move on to the harder things we are only going to be so useful and no more.

 We have no excuse not to learn more. The internet is replete with excellent Bible study classes and tools, many of them free. Pastors would be more than happy to help you and point you in the right direction.

 Learning must continue. Our only graduation day will be in heaven.

Babies

 

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. – Hebrews 5.12-14

 Not growing is a terrible thing. Think about people whose bodies grow to adulthood but their minds never grow up. They never have the ability to really know right from wrong. They can be babies in an adult body and need constant help.

 Sadly, there are many Christians who have the same problem spiritually. They never grow beyond being spiritual babies.

What a tragedy. It’s just not natural. Normally if there is no growth it is a sign that there is no life. Healthy living things must grow.

 And so it is for believers. It is not normal for us to stop growing and stagnate and never produce fruit. We ought never stop growing no matter how long we learn. We never do arrive in this life. I find that the longer I live and the longer I am a Christian the more I realise that I don’t know!

 Don’t be content where you are spiritually, no matter where you are. The Lord has so much more.

The author

And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, - Hebrews 5.9

Jesus calls Himself here the ‘author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.’ Jesus didn’t write the story of a temporary salvation. His story was on the would last all of eternity. 

One of the debates I have never understood is the thought that we can lose our salvation. I just can’t see it no matter how hard I try. This is one of those passages that makes me feel so strongly. 

Jesus is the author of ETERNAL salvation. Eternal, not temporary. He wrote the book. How can I change the plot. I’m not His editor or His publisher. 

We read a little later that Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. He who started this good work will perform it. 

The evidence of His authorship is that we obey Him. It’s just like characters in a novel who follows the author’s plan. 

Jesus didn’t author a temporary plan of salvation. He authored a permanent plan. I can’t override it. Thank God for eternal salvation. 

Impossible for God

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil - Hebrews 6:18-19

 It is hard to imagine that there is something an Almighty God cannot do. It almost sounds blasphemous to say God can’t do something.

 But here is something God can’t do and the great truth is that God cannot lie. Full stop. He cannot lie and He promises rest and hope and comfort to those who trust in Him

 Of all the things that we could hope that God cannot do is lie.

 I don’t think anyone can say honestly ‘I have never lied.’ We can try our best but sometimes those lies just find a way out. We speak before we think. Hopefully none of us are egregious liars, but at some point we all have lied.

 What confidence it gives us to know that God who has promised us eternal hope cannot lie – it is ours because if it were not he would have lied.

 If we could lose that hope that means that God lied. If someone could take it away that would mean that God lied. If He was going to take it away that would mean that He lied.

 But He can’t lie so my hope is secure – and it is that security that I can place my faith.

Bold prayer

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. – Hebrews 4.14-16

Now, because of what Jesus did we have a whole new kind of prayer life. We don’t have to pray in fear and trepidation. 

Because we can rest assured that the God we are praying to understands where we are coming from we can come into His throne with boldness and assurance that He is going to understand where we are coming from. 

Even in human life it is so much easier to talk to someone who knows what we are going through. You don’t feel near as alone. Somebody else gets it we can share in that common experience. You good to have someone to nod their head and say ‘yeah, I know what you mean’

So when I pray I can almost imagine Jesus doing the same. He opened the door to then throne of grace. He said ‘come on in.’ He says ‘I get it. I understand. Go on.’ 

How blessed we are with that clarity and that boldness and that confidence

We can be honest with Him. 

He gets it. 

Our great High Priest

 

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. – Hebrews 4.14-16

In the Old Testament the high priest was a lofty office totally separated from the people. He considered holy and upright and above all the rest. The high priest was an intimidating figure that your average Joe would not think of approaching.

 Jesus, however, is the ultimate High Priest and He did something for us that was beyond spectacular.

We don’t have a High Priest who has not suffered and been tried and been tempted. He was tested in all just like we are. He knew what it was like to hungry and alone and thirsty and rejected and any number of other testings. Of course, He knew these things because He was God, but now we have the confidence to ab assured that He can go through our trial because He has already been there.

 What a blessing to know that He knows. He came to be one of is to go through it all – for me!

No hiding

 

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. – Hebrews 4.13

 

Because the word of God is that mighty sharp sword there is no way to hide from its power. We may think that we are hiding things from God and He really doesn’t see our actions and words and attitudes and internal responses. We can carry on that way for ages until it becomes our life.

 

But God doesn’t miss anything. It is all open and obvious to Him. Psalm 139 reminds us that there is no place where we can run from God. We may think we have all of the thoughts and intents of the heart hidden away but God sees it all. We knows our hearts and our feelings and our words even before we speak them.

 

He also goes wherever we go. He sees whatever we see. He knows our attitudes and our response and the inner lusts and desires and the mean spiritedness that we can keep hidden from the world. All things are naked and open before Him. All of our dirty little secrets are seen and known by our God.

 

A man who hated his brother is a murderer. A man who lusts after an woman in his heart is an adulterer.

 

Let’s be sure that we strive to live lives open to God’s scrutiny.

Alive and powerful

 

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. – Hebrews 4.12

 

Faith only comes by hearing and hearing only comes by the word of God. Without the word of God there would be no faith and with no faith there would be no rest.

 The word of God cuts through all the nonsense. All the excess is cut away. It cuts down to the soul and spirit and it reveals the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 We must let God’s word reveal what we are on the inside.

 But even before all that we see that God’s word is alive and powerful. It is unlike any other book because it comes alive as we read it. That’s what happens when you read a passage for the hundredth time and all of a sudden it jumps out at you and changes your life. It has the power to change our hearts and our attitudes.

God's word has the power to do all that if we are willing to look into it and let it change us. 

 We ought to be grateful for God’s loving word that will get right to the root of our problems and issues and sin. Let it do it’s work and bring us into conformity with the loving God Himself.

No rest

 

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. – Hebrews 4.11

 I think we all feel like we could use a rest right now. It has been a trying few months for us all. The older we get the more we look to that eternal and permanent rest.

 But that rest is not promised to everyone. Some folks go through this life just assuming that it will be find in the end. They miss the rest because they missed the faith. They spend eternity in the worst possible state of unrest.

That’s why we need to be diligent to share with folks that they need Jesus in order to have rest. We must be diligent lest anyone around us fall by the wayside. There is a wonderful rest awaiting. It is a rest that God wants everyone to enter. He has provided a way for us to go back to a Garden of Eden.

 Sadly, too many are going to miss that rest because of the same thing that wrecked life in that garden. Sin closed that garden and sin closes that future rest.

But there is no need to miss. We have the good news of how to get there. We have the charge to share it.

 How are we doing?