Our Journey of Perseverance, Pt. 5

Ronald Weinland

April 3, 2021

On this last day of the Days of Unleavened Bread, it’s amazing, it's come and gone and here we are just at the first part of April. It’s a little earlier this year than it has been in times past. But on this last day of Unleavened Bread, we're going to continue in the current series entitled Our Journey of Perseverance.

This has been designed around, the whole sermon series, around this season of the year, so obviously, our journey out of spiritual Egypt is one of perseverance and that's what so much of this is about.

Perseverance reflects whether or not we are fulfilling the name that God has given to us as being Israel. Not a physical people, but a spiritual one, spiritual Israel, a people who reflect they are living perseverance. A lot of people haven’t through time. A lot of people have gone by the wayside through time. All of us have witnessed that within the Church regardless of how long you have been attending. You have seen that take place. So, nothing new for God’s people to observe that, to watch that take place. Just don't let it happen to you.

As in Part 4 last week, we're going to begin today with a reminder of that song that Israel sang or came together with that’s recorded. That this was a song that they had after leaving Egypt, which is very much a type of God redeeming Israel, obviously, and we're reflecting that in our lives on a spiritual plane and that's a process. The days of Unleavened Bread and Passover obviously reflect that process, the beginning of that process in a very great way.

But I love this verse here, Exodus 15:13. It’s amazing how certain things, there comes a time when they are to be focused upon even more so, and this is that time for this particular verse. Basically, a verse that people haven’t really thought about that much because it's just a matter of reading through scripture and reading a story flow and reading about Egypt, or Israel leaving Egypt, I should say, and not grasping the full thrust of what God is saying.

So again here, Exodus 15:13—You in your mercy… Again, this is praising God and speaking to God, singing to God. You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed. Again, that's for them on a physical plane, but for us on a spiritual one.

You have guided, and as it is, us (not “them”). You have guided us in Your strength to Your holy habitation. That part of the verse has nothing to do with Ancient Israel, in that respect, and them being let out of Egypt. God wasn't leading them to a holy habitation at all. We understand that is about God's people and those whom God has called. It's an awesome verse, in that respect, especially when you begin to understand what it's all about.

The Days of Unleavened Bread, Passover, really is the beginning of all to make it possible to be led to His holy habitation and what that is all about. We understand that, we grasp that. But until we focus upon some things like this at times it's easy to read right over it and not grasp the importance of what God said a long, long time ago that was prophetic in nature, that had to do with a time to come and what that period was reflecting, Him leading Israel out of Egypt.

So again, this Passover season is all about how God is accomplishing this phase of His plan for the family that He is creating. That’s why Christ died, so that God could lead us to His holy habitation. Because sin had to be addressed, sin had to be taken care of. Again, very inspiring when you think about those things and focus upon those things.

Anyway, shortly we're going to continue right from where we left off in Part 4 last week and focus on a section in Hebrews which contains much about what this series is focusing upon in the first place and what this Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread are all about.

It’s about, again, the spiritual journey we're on and how God and Christ are themselves persevering—need to understand that—how God and Christ are themselves persevering to deliver us. It also reveals much about how we are to respond ourselves then, and ourselves then persevere in the calling God has given to us, and live up to that name, strive to live up to that name, to embrace that name that God gave us, Israel.

But just before we go into those verses, into that section of the book of Hebrews, which is later in the book of Hebrews, and understanding that this sermon series, in this particular part here was prepared several weeks ago—I find it inspiring when things like this happen—but we're going to first address some scriptures in Hebrews that Johnny Harrell looked at last week. Again, they fit hand in glove. I always find those things inspiring.

It seems like so often when Wayne has given a sermon or Johnny has given a sermon and you look at the flow of the sermons we've been addressing and the things that God is having us address, without talking to each other about the content of those things, you can see who the author is. You can see how God leads, guides, and directs us and teaches us. It’s an inspiring thing.

So, we're going to pick up in a verse in Hebrews, Hebrews 3, that he focused upon last week and cover that in the context of this matter of persevering and what it says. Because God has addressed this in many different ways through time in the sense of what it means by His strength and by His power that we’re being delivered, being led to His holy habitation.

Hebrews 3:6—But Christ as a Son over His own house… And we know what that is all about, that holy habitation. That’s everything. That’s what God is doing, Mount Zion, Jerusalem, all the things that are used, the temple of God.

But Christ as a Son over His own house. That’s why we speak of in terms of the Church of God, that Christ is the head of the Church. On Passover, and during the Passover service, we refer to what it talks about in Corinthians that Paul addresses concerning our being able to discern, to understand the Body of Christ. It’s about the Church. Awesome.

But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast. That in itself is a matter of persevering. When do you stop holding fast to what God has given to us, to what He places before us? Because that is about persevering. To hold fast, that takes work.

We are to hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm. Again, a word in the Greek that it means “secure; to secure, firm, holdfast.” It’s the same context here in this verse that’s being addressed here about perseverance. You have this hope and it’s a matter of something that you’re securing, it’s to be firm in your grasp, well, again, you don’t let up. You can't afford to let up.

To live up to Israel you have to keep that secure, that hope secure and so many haven't through time. So often by our human nature we can tend to let down in that area. Rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Verse 12—Take heed. Again, Take heed. It’s like being on guard. When do you not exercise that? When do you not do that? Well, because of our human nature there are times we are not taking heed, we’re not on guard like we should be spiritually, and because of that we're not persevering in the way that God tells us to persevere.

That's our response. God tells us how to do these things. He's been persevering, His Son’s been persevering to give us what they desire to give to us. They work hard at that. We’re to respond to that in like manner, to follow that example.

Take heed, brethren, unless there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. To let up, to let down, to not be living Israel, to not be persevering like we should. That's the way these things happen.

“Unless there be in any of you…” And what an incredible thing. God has given us the ability to believe, to see, to know the truth. He communicates those things to our thinking, to our mind, powerful, precious truth that so few have understood through time. And candidly, we have so much that no one in times past has ever understood, because it wasn't God's time to reveal those things, to give those things to them. How blessed are we? It’s incredible. It really is.

So, it really is an evil heart if we begin to let up in what God has given to us and let up in what God has given us the ability to hold onto, to hold fast, to secure, to believe. That’s why the truth is so important. All the truth that God has given to us, that we are aware of those things, that we review those things from time to time, that we think upon those things and grasp how blessed we truly are.

So again here, Take heed, brethren, unless there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. What a horrible thing to depart from God!

But, as it says here, exhort one another daily. It’s awkward how it's translated here. It’s an awkward translation. There are so many that are so awkward sometimes, they really are, how they’ve translated things. So much of what has been translated has been translated by their thinking (the translators), and what they believed. What they believed wasn't true. It wasn't true. It was based on that which has come out of a big church, a church that grew large and then splintered and became many churches, if you will, through time.

Again, those translations just follow down. People still latched on to them even though they had a different belief, a protestant belief of different thoughts and ideas about some of the same things being taught, but still holding onto then some of those awkward misleading translations.

Sometimes just the fact that some of these, because a lot of what we have in scripture today, for us anyway, comes out of the old King James, and that's been translated in the new but basically along the same lines and it's off. There are so many things that are just off. So again here, another awkward translation.

We are not able to exhort one another daily. We know that. And so, some of this really needs to be addressed as what is it talking about then. Who can exhort one another daily? Well, what does that mean, “to exhort one another daily,” in the first place? What is it talking about here?

Well, sometimes we have to dig a little deeper to see what is being said, what is being stated, because the way we normally would take this isn't what is being said. This word is most often translated as “to beseech,” “to beseech,” or a form of it. The term, “one another,” is not really used like this at all, but is more about ourselves.

And so, how so many have taken this is we are to, we have a responsibility to, exhort or to encourage or whatever that might mean to us in our vocabulary, one another daily, on top of that. That's not what it's saying at all! It's about us! It's about what we are to do ourselves. The words really come back to the individual, not to others and what we might do toward others. It’s what we're doing ourselves that's important here.

So, what a horrible thing when translators have (and a being behind all that), have so twisted up things, and things of Old English that don't carry the same meaning anyway or things that people in times past have inserted because of that great church, a large church, whatever. It’s not a great church.

So again, it's about ourselves and what we are to do. So basically, it's about focusing up on ourselves and our response to what God places before us, not focusing upon others and what they should be doing and how they should be doing and our judging them, and if they're not doing what we think they should be then we're going to exhort them, we're going to teach them something different. So often it's about just look in the mirror. We just need to look at ourselves first and foremost and then prayerfully a right example follows and then people will learn from that.

This is far more accurately translated as, But yourselves, in essence (awkward how I’m saying this because of the words that are used here), beseech daily. So, what does it mean beseech? Beseech who? The context is about God. You’re not beseeching others. It's not about others; it’s about yourself, and the context is about your relationship to God.

It's an admonition here to beseech God daily! Isn’t that amazing? Something like this that can get so messed up in translation and yet there is meat in there, there is spiritual food to drink in and what we’re to focus upon and what Paul was saying to the Hebrews here, in essence, being inspired by God.

But yourselves, you’re to beseech God, in essence, in the context here, daily. Isn’t that what we’re taught? That we’re to have a relationship, a fellowship with God, and we need to beseech Him regularly every day? Why? Because we need God spirit. We can't do this persevering on our own. God will give us the strength and the help to persevere. That's what this is about. Awesome! It’s amazing how many things are hidden like this and how much more is here that we can grasp and see that God gives to us.

So again here, “Take heed, brethren.” How do you do that? You beseech God! How do you stay on guard spiritually? You beseech God! You go before God and ask God for the help to do it because you can't do it on your own. So much is missed by this when it’s read in the context of this is about what we can do for others, how we can exhort others. No, it’s not what it’s about.

Take heed, brethren, unless there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Because we’re to have a relationship with Him, a daily relationship, and if we depart from that we’re cutting our own throat on a spiritual plane. That's basically what this is about.

But yourselves beseech, in the context, beseech God. That's what the context is about. Don't depart from God but beseech Him daily. So simple, isn’t it? …while it’s called today, lest, or unless otherwise, as it is in the Greek, any of you become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Because we're weak and we can become deceived. We can deceive ourselves. The only protection against that because of our carnal human nature and selfish nature is to be close to God daily in our lives.

…unless otherwise any of you… So, if we're not beseeching God this is what's going to happen. We're not going to be able to hold on. We're not going to be able to hold fast. That's what Paul is saying here. …and become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

We've seen so many people over time go that direction. Because, you know sometimes, and it happens often when someone is all of a sudden, they are disfellowshipped, they're no longer here, it’s like, “I didn’t see that! Why did that happen?”

Sometimes people want to get ahold of them and talk to them, and feel like maybe they can talk them out of it, that maybe if we just reason a little bit? You think, you’re to learn from this. This didn’t just happen. It's been going on and coming to this point for a long, long time, because God is very merciful and very patient with us, He truly is, and He gives people time.

But if individuals won't respond as God gives them that opportunity, there comes a time, well, just like with the Church, He had to separate it, all of it. Uses the expression of spewing it out of His mouth. Just total separation from Him, from the Body of Christ, because of how far away it had drifted being lukewarm. God can't have that. He gave a lot of time. All of the period of Laodicea and three and a half years beyond the Apostasy.

Awesome, when we recognize what God has done, the incredible patience and mercy, the shaking then that was given to the Church, as it speaks about in Matthew, the earthquake. It’s not an earthquake. But when you talk about a shaking, the different shakings that took place before the Apostasy even occurred, and then finally that one? Incredible, what we’ve been through in this age.

…for we are made partakers of Christ, the Body of Christ. We are in the Body of Christ, partakers of, even to share with Christ those things that he has, that life forever. Incredible. Inheritance in the God Family if—that big “if.” If. Because it’s always dependent upon us and our response. God has persevered. Christ has persevered ever since his life began to fulfill what God had given to him. God has persevered for a much, much longer period of time to give to mankind what we are blessed to taste of now, to receive now, and for where it’s leading.

So again, if we hold, and that means “hold fast.” So, it's not just kind of barely holding on, it's holding on fast, holding with all of your being. That's what perseverance is about. We can't do it halfheartedly. We can't do it like Laodicea did, because that was halfhearted, became lukewarm. That isn't what this way of life is about, a relationship that God desires to have with us. It has to be on fire, and we have to hold fast to how we’re to respond and this relationship we’re to have with God.

…if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast. Well, what was the beginning of that confidence? It’s when God opened your mind, gave you the truth. That's where our beginning was. Each one of us, God worked with us differently at different times, placed into our minds the ability to see and understand things that we couldn't go out and share with others that hadn't been called. We could only share with others who had been called.

That's what makes fellowship so rich, we can communicate with each other on the same plane. We live the same thing. We live the same Holy Days, the same Sabbath, on and on it goes, the same truths as we come into agreement with those things to have unity and oneness with God. It’s a beautiful thing.

That's why in times past all the division, all the things that have taken place that are like that are so harmful. But that's how we learn so often. God allows those things to exist, vessels to honor and dishonor, and we learn from that process.

For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast. In other words, you just can't let up. It has to be steadfast.

That's why I always loved everything that Herbert Armstrong did, everything that ever came from him was with a sense of urgency. He was blessed with that in a very powerful way. The Church then was blessed because of that as well; we were recipients of that sense of urgency. Always there! Whatever he wrote, whatever he spoke, it was always there. Incredible! Sense of urgency about the work, of getting this job done, of going to the world with the gospel. Incredible! Incredible zeal for that. What an example for those who were blessed to see that, to be part of that.

So, it says here again, If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast. That word, same word that means “secure, firm.” Here it says “steadfast,” but it’s that same word we read earlier here that has to do with, again, being secure, being firm, with all of your being, in essence. No slippage in the rope, like in the tug-of-war, you’re going to hold on.

I can’t help but think of the wrestling God did with Jacob. Incredible. It’s that steadfastness. It’s that perseverance. It’s that holding on. He didn't let loose, wasn't going to. That's the kind of mind we have to have toward the truth, because that's what this confidence is all about. It's about the truth. It's about the faith that God gives us to the ability to believe, to know what is true.

…unto the end. In other words, you do it until you've reached that point. And what is that point? Well, in most cases it’s death. Because if we've lived this way to the end then it's the beginning, in large part, as far as God's Family is concerned. Because that's what it's about, being resurrected, being changed, being able to be a part of Elohim forever.

Again, holding fast, being steadfast onto the end. To persevere. Beautiful. Over and over again.

So, those things that were given by Johnny fitting perfectly into the overall theme that God is giving here. To me, I find that awesomely inspiring, how God feeds us.

Let’s proceed where we left off on this sermon on Passover day now, on the weekly Sabbath.

Hebrews 9:19—For when Moses had spoken every precept… Well, I don’t like that word because it lessens what they were told. So, I don't know what your translation gives, but basically, it's “every command.” Because when God says something that's how it better be taken. Doesn't have to be specifically even the 10 Commandments, but when God commanded them things in the wilderness, whether it be the Levitical system and everything else, the response is, “God said it. God commanded it. It comes from God.”

And to me, because of my understanding or my thoughts of what it means “a precept,” it’s like that doesn't really quite (if you understand what I’m saying), it doesn't really get a hold of it like it should. It’s like it’s a precept, it's a thought, an idea, it's a good idea to live by. No, it comes from God Almighty and He commands it! When God says something that's what He's telling us. How else are we to take it?

For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law… And most of what it’s talking about in the book of Hebrews here, it's not referring to, when it’s talking about the law, he's talking about some changes that took place. He's talking about a sacrificial system. He's talking about the Levitical system.

So, as you read through Hebrews a lot of the things are said about the Levitical system, the sacrificial system, and people use that in a wrong way talking about the 10 Commandments then and changes that took place.

No, it’s not about changes in the 10 commandments or anything of that nature. This is about a Levitical system, as a whole, the sacrificial system. Because Christ changed everything! His life, what he did, he died to change everything. It’s why in the Passover he observed, the first part of it was with the disciples, was as it was given before. Passover, year by year the lamb is roasted, it's eaten, and the things you do. But he changed it and a new one began. After that time the old Passover was never to be kept again.

So, what do the Jews do to this day and some people in some of the different groups of scattered people in time? They want to keep this meal. They want to keep this Seder thing or whatever, you know, because that becomes more important to them. They can't help what they don't see and don't understand because they rejected things about Passover a long time ago. When you start rejecting, even when you have in a carnal way a certain truth that you're able to profit by in life, if you start watering it down, your life is going to get watered down too.

Because the more you can live or obey God in various things in life, you're blessed by it. People who tithe in the world, they’re blessed by it.

So again, When Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood… Even the context is so clear. It’s the sacrificial law. …he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant with which God has charged you. Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry, as even according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

So again here, this was done on a physical plane in a physical relationship as a physical people in a community, a physical community, and their relationship within that community, to still be part of it and so forth, and God gave them guidelines and commands of what they were to do. Even “guidelines” is not good. Commands as to what they were to do and how they were to do it.

It goes on to show here all these things, beautiful. Therefore, it was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these. So, in other words, there is this pattern, this blueprint of what God is doing, in essence, to bring about Elohim—that's what it's all about—in time, and there's all that’s revealed all along the way and all the things that God has given to be a type, to be a picture to represent, to teach as a result of having those things. Because we're physical carnal human beings and physical things can help us to better understand spiritual things, and God has so blessed us in that.

We can relate to that, unleavened bread. We learn from that, the beauty of what God gave as a physical thing that we have in our lives, the unleavened bread of life, Christ. He’s the unleavened bread of life. His life can be in us. It’s a beautiful thing. Obedience, living God's way of life is unleavened.

Leaven, the example of that, it puffs up. Beautiful examples in Corinthians. It puffs up and we relate to that when it comes to haughtiness and pride. People are just puffed up, just full of air. That’s what it is. Not only that but it's like it's been heated up and puffed up, because it's a lot of hot air.

That's the way we are human beings. We can have, we can be just a bunch of hot air. Pride, haughtiness is such an evil, ugly thing. But it's a part of human nature. It’s an absolute part of our lives because we're carnal. “Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” It’s a sick thing. We have to get to a point where we really detest it and what it does because it separates us and fights against God; separates us from God and it fights against God. It resists God. That’s what our nature does. It resists God.

That's a battle. You have to persevere at that. You can't let up in that. You have to be on guard. You have to take heed to such things if you truly want to be Israel, to live up to the name, to become the name that God has given us that has to do with persevering to the end.

But the heavenly things themselves, with better sacrifices than these. Because they were patterns. Just like the tabernacle in the wilderness, it’s a pattern, or the tabernacle that was built, the temple that was built by Solomon. All, everything in it, everything about it pictured something, like a blueprint, and it all has meaning on a spiritual plane. Everything is about something. It's not there just for kicks. It all has a purpose, everything that's there, to reflect something in God’s spiritual plan for His family.

But the heavenly things themselves… And when it uses this expression “the heavenly things themselves,” it's about what God is doing. It's about what God has established, what God has purposed and planned, and is working toward fulfilling in the sense of what has been prepared before, laid out before, just like a blueprint.

But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices in these. Again, all this requires perseverance, if we understand. For Christ has not entered the Holy Place made with hands, which are copies of the true. What an awesome thing, “copies of the true.” ...but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.

So, he's our High Priest. I love Leviticus 16 that talks about this process and him going into the Holiest of Holies and not coming out until a certain point, until certain things have been accomplished. Again, beautiful the things. All those things are a pattern in Leviticus 16, of things that have incredible meaning. Verse by verse by verse, the azazel, the two goats, one sent out in the wilderness, one killed, and all these things that have meaning in them. Incredible! They picture something. They’re a type. They’re a pattern, a blueprint of that which is from God, spiritual in His plan.

So again here, For Christ has not entered into the Holy Place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Again, our High Priest.

So again here, they both work, persevere at it. Awesome, to understand these things. They persevere with us to press forward the plan of God from the beginning, for everything that God has laid out.

Verse 25—Not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters in the Holy Place every year with blood of another. We know this, this routine they went through year by year by year, and yet God is revealing things through Paul to the Hebrews, written to the Hebrews.

He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the end of the ages. What an incredible thing, “the end of the ages,” and yet it was 2,000 years ago. Well, it was past the halfway mark. It was in that end now heading toward the very end. The longer we've gone on now we’re closer and closer to the end and beginning of a lot of different things, but the completion, the fulfillment of God's plan. A lot farther along, obviously, at this point because we have right at 1,100 years in front of us and then it’s all going to be complete, everything that’s pictured. Incredible!

So again here, speaking about what Christ has done and the changes that have taken place that we picture in this time of year.

He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once at the end of this age he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So, one time. Lived a perfect life, didn't sin, perfect sacrifice for all mankind, without sin, totally unleavened spiritually. And for the purpose? As a Passover to put away sin. That’s what it was about. It wasn't to be the Messiah. It was to deal with sin so that we could come into this relationship in the Body of Christ that we’re to hold fast to.

And as it’s 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 wait for him he will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. Again, this plan, so beautiful. You think, what a beautiful thing when people in the world begin to understand that they haven't grasped this, and how exciting it will be just as it is when we're called and God lets us see various things. But for them after a certain period of time and looking back there, there's going to be a lot more as far as history is concerned of things they’re going to be able to learn from and see, and rejoice in what God is done, prepared.

Hebrews 10:1—For the law—again, pertaining to the sacrificial system—having a shadow of good things to come, and not by the very image of the things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offered continually year by year, make those who approach or who approached perfect. It didn't change anything in them. It wasn't about something spiritual. It was just a physical community type of thing that they were to do and live by and be taught about certain aspects of God in a relationship with God. But you know, a physical one, that kind of a physical one is so far, far away from what we have been given. It was a type of something that is on a far grander scale, and when we grasp it there's not even any comparison between the two. But it’s all there for a picture, a pattern.

For then they would not have ceased to be offered, for the worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. What an awesome thing to understand here, that they were reminded of their sins ever year. We’re reminded all the time as well. But there’s a great difference. Their sins have never been, were never taken care of, in the sense of anything to do with forgiveness. Ours are, as far as the conscious, the mind.

That’s why, what an incredible thing that we are so blessed to grasp, to know, to understand, to grow in, because you have to grow in this, because a lot of times we don't let go. We beat ourselves and that just reflects the physical mind. But to truly let go, to realize that when we've gone before God and repent of a sin or sins, they're gone. They are gone! Doesn’t have to be more consciousness of it. You keep fighting it, you keep praying to God, you keep looking to God for help to continue to be on guard to fight against it.

There are times that people slip. There are times we all slip in life and trip, whatever it might be, and we repent again. But we keep at it. This is a part of holding fast to what God has given to us to help us to understand what we're like as human beings, that we need Him constantly, continually. But what an awesome thing that we're clean, were cleared of those things.

It's not around anymore just as soon as you ask and that's a matter of faith and growing in faith. Because, again, I found in God's Church over time that a lot of times we just can't let go of those things. God does. Christ does. But for some reason so often as human beings it's a matter of just believing what God is like, who He is, what He does.

It's difficult for us because that’s spiritual. Because we know human beings can’t. Human beings hold on to things. Only people in God’s Church, as a whole, can truly get rid of things and not hold those things and learn through that process and grow in the aspects of God’s spirit, and the mind change and be transformed and that's a beautiful process.

But as a whole, outside of that, people can't. There are still things in their heart, in their minds that they just can't get rid of because it's a spiritual thing until it's gone and taken away by Christ, by his Passover, by him being Passover, by God, forgiveness. Incredible.

There is so much to learn and grow in those things and it’s a lifetime of learning, it truly is, in God’s Church, to grow in this, to grasp this, to live this to where you know you're free. You don't have to beat yourself up. You don't have to be pulled down by it. When you're free, you're free, thank God. It’s a wonderful thing. That’s true peace. That's true rest.

For then they would have not ceased to be offered, for the worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those, as the context is talking about, sacrifices, that’s what it’s talking about. But in those is a reminder of sins every year.

We do it on a spiritual plane. They did it on a physical plane never being freed. We have to be cognizant of, because it helps us to recognize, to hold fast, to persevere, we have to look to God on a daily basis to fight, to be on guard, to be able to conquer sin because it's always in front of us. Because we know our nature. We know what we are. But what a blessing, because we repent, and it’s gone. But it's a constant fight, perseverance.

For it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could carry or take away sins. Therefore, when he entered in this world he said, Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for me.

So, what an awesome revelation to mankind that people still don't grasp in the world. They think they know it, they think they understand it, but until you begin to live it on a spiritual plane, to understand these things more deeply, oh, what a profound thing that we have in our lives that we if we're not careful we could begin to take for granted. Which is horrible.

Its why God reminds us every year about Passover, Unleavened Bread, all the Holy Days, of the plan of God, His plan, because it has to be constantly in front of us and we have to then fight for that, persevere to hold onto it. Otherwise, we can lose it. That's why we have to have constant communication with God day by day, daily beseeching God. Because we can't do it on our own.

So, we understand in God's Church that it wasn't about physical sacrifices, that God's desire was never about that. That isn't what God rejoices in, desires. It was a pattern of something to come but it never really did anything at all in that respect, except in a community to have a people that carried certain things with them depending on their choices and so forth.

Judah fared the best, in the sense of carrying those things. The rest of them pretty much let them go and wandered off and did their own thing. But Judah did, on a physical plane, strive to hold on to those things. Because it's physical. It was not spiritual what they did, keeping the Sabbath, keeping the Holy Days or keeping track of them in time and various things of that nature that became more of a self-righteous thing with them then. Obviously, they weren't able to have the truth of those things. That’s spiritual.

So again here, Christ, in essence saying here, this is what is recorded, an acknowledgement to God that His desire was never for that which was about sacrifices. It's just a part of a pattern to lead to something greater. And the greater is Christ. Prepared a body. He had a physical body. He is the Son of God. He was the Son of God. He was born of Mary, had a physical life, had to die a physical life, had to suffer, had to be beaten, had to have his skin ripped off of his body, had to be fastened to a pole and then a spear run into his side for blood to come out to fulfill scripture.

A body You have prepared me. That's what he's talking about.

Verse 6—In burnt offering, speaking of sacrifices for sin, You had no pleasure. That’s not what it was all about. That was just a pattern.

Just like the temple. It was just a building. It wasn't the real thing. But it held together, to a point, at various times, a physical community, a physical people that spoke of God, that talked about God, that were able to have God intervene for them from time to time. They’d go astray and then they begin to feel bad, and only because other nations were coming in and trying to destroy them and steal everything they had and kill, and then they would turn to God and God would have mercy upon them and send them judges, send them different ones to fight to remove those things from them. But again, not a spiritual relationship, just a community that is able to have certain things about God with it; very limited.

Then, I said, Behold, I have come. In the volume of the book it is written of me, to do Your will. Now this, to me, is absolutely beautiful, what it is talking about. What an incredible thing that so many even in God’s Church have not understood these verses. You think they have, but they haven't.

So, it’s a matter here of coming to understand, and the process here of what Christ was fulfilling, he had come, and he understood that, to do His Father's will. That was his life. That was everything about him. It consumed his life. He wanted it so very much that's what he lived for. That’s what he died for. So powerful in his mind, it's difficult to grasp those things.

When previously saying, Sacrifice and offering, with burnt offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them, which were offered according to the law. Then, he said, Behold, I have come to do Your will. Finally, finally the first, the first of the firstfruits. His entire purpose, his entire life was one of doing God's will on a plane that is absolutely profound because it had to be totally fulfilled and accomplished exactly the way God had planned so long before to be able to, in time, have the family He’s going to have that glorifies God every step of the way.

Then he said, Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. So, it’s really quite simple, quite basic. Sad that so many haven’t grasped and understood what this is talking about.

He came to do away with the first. What is that about? It’s about the sacrificial system. It was being done away with and God’s will, doing God’s will was being established. First Christ, in Christ, and then in those who were to become a part of the Church from that point on, in that respect, as far as how this was able to be lived on a spiritual plane in a very powerful way. Not just in a personal relationship different ones had with God and how they were worked with and molded and fashioned up to the time of Christ, but now a Body beginning, a Church beginning and how God would work in a greater way with the Church and how that they were to follow suit to learn to do God’s will.

Because the first was taken away, the sacrificial system. It has no purpose in it except as a teacher, as something that we’re able to learn from to point to things that are spiritual.

Verse 10—By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Joshua the Christ once for all. By God’s will, by Christ living according to God’s will these things were accomplished, these things were fulfilled.

Even as every priest stands ministering daily in offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take way sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Our High Priest. It’s a beautiful picture.

For by one offering he has perfected, or he perfects forever those who are being sanctified. But the holy spirit also witnesses to us, for after that He said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them in those days, says the Eternal, I will put My laws into their hearts, and, In their minds, I will write them. What an incredible thing that this was read for so long and never lived. Just wasn’t being lived by a physical nation of people.

Then it says, “then he adds,” basically here that’s added but fits the flow here, their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more. So again, it’s this thing of being the conscious, the conscious mind, and the fact that when sin is committed that we can repent and it’s gone. It doesn’t have to be there to torment, to hurt, to nag. You’re free. And for us to let ourselves be free is a process of growth spiritually on our part because so often we just don’t allow that.

Now, where there is no remission of these there is no longer an offering of sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness… and this is about a freedom. It’s about a confidence. It’s a word in the Greek that literally means, in essence, “a freedom of speech,” being able to speak, being able to live, a confidence as well. Having boldness, which is a type of boldness, to know, to understand that you can go before God any time.

Here the high priest went in once a year and it wasn’t a spiritual thing, it was a physical thing, but it pictured things about Christ, of what was to come. It was a pattern, and it didn’t do anything for Israel, in that respect, on a spiritual plane, period. But we live it. Awesome!

Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Joshua. Anytime, wherever you are, you can address God the Father. That is so difficult for us as human beings to grasp, what that means. The great God of the universe, that literally, He wants to hear from us, that literally, we have that ability at any moment, any time, to pray to Him. Short, long, in between, doesn’t matter, and He hears us. He has that ability. He has the ability if we all do it at the same time to hear us. We can’t grasp that. We can’t even begin to grasp that! But He does. He has that mind, that power that’s so far beyond human thought, human minds.

So again, Therefore, brethren, having boldness… It is a boldness. It’s a confidence. It’s a freedom that we have to speak, if you will, to God, to talk to God, to know that God hears us. What an incredible freedom indeed.

The world doesn’t have it. The world doesn’t have it at all, period. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t intervene and listen to different ones at different times because of what they might go through in life and what they say to Him. He might choose at different times, and has and does, but not as a part of the Body yet. God’s very merciful to His creation. Just because people don’t understand everything doesn’t mean that, you know, that someone can’t cry out to God and He doesn’t hear them. They’re His creation. He loves them. But their time is going to be at somewhere else. Maybe in the Millennium. Maybe in the Great White Throne.

So again here, Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Joshua, by a new and living way. It’s alive. It’s saying this because this is spiritual. It’s new because Israel never had it, the world doesn’t have it. What they have is fully physical. Nothing as far as spiritual understanding of what is true because that requires God’s holy spirit to know, to see things on a spiritual plane. That’s what’s living about it. It’s alive.

Just like when we go through scriptures like this. Literally, we are inspired, we are able to be moved and motivated on a spiritual plane because we see something. We see things as we’ve been going through here, even as we looked at different words here, of a deeper meaning and purpose that God has in them and what He said. Just like in the part of being led by His power, by His strength to His holy… how does it say it? Holy habitation, His holy dwelling.

It means so much to us. It lifts us up. It comes alive! How can you explain that fully except it’s alive and inside of you and stirs you, and it’s meaningful? I don’t know how we can go through things like this… especially on Holy Days and it just becomes a part of our life.

Every time we review, whether it be Passover, the first day of Unleavened Bread, the second day, you know, the last day of Unleavened Bread, all the meaning in between, the Holy Days, Pentecost, everything that’s there and you see how they fit into God’s plan. When we talk about the temple and different parts of the temple and things that they represent and the sacrificial system and the high priest and what he did, and it just, it comes alive for us in our thinking, in our minds. It’s beautiful! It glorifies God because He’s bringing these things to pass step by step as time goes along.

The fact that we live it and experience these things, and the fact that we persevere, and as we persevere, our perseverance glorifies God. I hope we understand that! These things glorify God. Why? Because it’s by His great power it’s being done. It’s by His great power that we’re able to respond to those things and that He’s able to accomplish those things in us, a change in mind, a transformation of the mind, a life that we’re able to live that glorifies Him because He’s doing it. It’s by His great power and His great might. It glorifies God.

What an awesome thing to understand, that our lives can glorify God. They do because we’re fulfilling His purpose, His plan if we persevere. If we don’t, we bring dishonor before God’s throne; we bring shame to God’s name. That’s what so many have done through time. Their lives have brought shame. They haven’t yielded to the process to glorify and honor God, that what could be accomplished in them is done by His power and will be.

It’s a beautiful thing. But it honors Him and glorifies Him because in time others are going to come to see God is glorified. “Look what He created by His great power, by His great might, to lead us to His holy habitation,” and it glorifies Him.

We should want to honor God by glorifying Him, by persevering, by living what He’s given us the ability to live. Because in accomplishing that and the change that comes about brings glory to God. It truly does. No one can look at themselves and say they did this. We just have choices to make, and we have to be a part of it, and we have to fight for it with all of our being, but He gives us all the ability all along the way because the power comes from Him.

Boldness, okay, to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Joshua, by a new and a living way which he consecrated for us, through the veil, that is his flesh. These things come alive! How can you help but think about the veil that was rent in two while he was there on the pole, and at 3:00 in the afternoon there the skies became dark and the curtain into the Holiest of Holies was ripped in two! Beautiful picture of what it’s all about.

…by a new and living way which is consecrated through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. So again, something very physical that took place but represented something very spiritual. He was on the pole, his life was fulfilling it, the curtain ripped in two, his life torn apart, gave his life to accomplish God’s will, His purpose in that phase of the plan as our Passover.

…that is to say, his flesh. And having a High Priest over the house of God let us draw near. Beseech. We’ve already read about it. To beseech God daily. To draw near, that’s how you do it. You do it daily. Let us draw near with a true heart. Deception, we have to fight against it. We have to fight to get rid of it. The lies, the things that exist in human life because of “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes.” Human beings, as we tend to lie to ourselves as human beings, to believe the things we do.

Sometimes I am so dumbfounded, but I know the limitations of the human mind. But you watch people as they think they’re right! In the news you see this all the time, and commentaries and people discussing things amongst themselves. You go to one channel; they can have a panel and they’re discussing things with how they think and they feel that they’re so right and they find fault with the others who don’t think the same way they do. Then you go to the other channel and it’s the exact opposite in things they believe.

They even talk in that vein, “Fair and Balanced.” “Oh, yes, fair and balanced. This is where you get it.” Bull! Bull, bull, bull, bull, bull, bull, bull. They’re both wrong. They’re both prejudiced. They have lies in their life. They lie to themselves. They think they’re right. They think they’re being honest and true, but they don’t understand their minds yet. They can’t objectively look at something someone else is doing and find anything right with it. On the contrary, it’s in opposition, and because they’re in opposition they automatically have to find something wrong.

Is it any wonder that nothing works? Because each one has to find something wrong in the other. Can we objectively look at some of those things and say, “You know what? This has merit. This has some merit to it. Too bad they can’t get together on it.” But they never will. They can’t because of their human nature. “Fair and balanced?” You want to really believe that?

Yet sometimes in God’s Church people believe that. If not about that group, the other ones who don’t really claim it, but we might think they’re kind of fair, that they have a point. Well, I’m sorry; we have to be so careful of what we let in our minds and what we believe and what we take sides with.

Because we better take sides with God above everything else, what God says. Because we’re living God’s plan. We’re seeking to live God’s will and our part in God’s will is to finish an end of an age, to be at the finish of an end of an age just before Joshua returns, to finish what God has given us as a remnant, to live on, to continue on, some who will be changed, some who will live into a new age.

Very few are being given that opportunity to have been called five, ten, fifteen, twenty years before and have the opportunity to go into a new age, to be known as God’s remnant Church at the end of the age who went through some horrible times but held fast. You don’t recognize the honor that is going to be shown. And candidly, you’re going to have to fight to be of a mind that stays humble. Because even then you can trip and fall, after all that, and take it to yourself and be raised up by it in self-importance. “Boy, I am important!” No, only to the degree in the sense of God and what God is doing in our lives. But we don’t take it to ourselves. For the day we do, whew…!

Let us hold fast the confession or the profession . . . true heart in full assurance of faith. So again here, this confidence we can have in faith, confidence, first of all, exactly what we’ve been talking about, in faith, in belief, of exactly why our Passover came. Because that’s what he’s talking about here, that we can be forgiven of our sins, and when they’re gone, they’re gone, to have boldness in that, confidence in that, a freedom in that. To be able to talk to God and know that He’s listening, a boldness to know that? Because that’s pretty bold. But what an awesome thing to just know that. It’s not being bold; it just is what it is. “He’s my Father.”

He’s our Father and He loves to hear from us. He wants to hear from us daily. He doesn’t want us to go a day where we haven’t come before Him and cried out to Him, prayed to Him. Because He knows the danger in that. He wants us to know the danger in that.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. So, what is it about? It’s about repentance. It’s about the sacrifice for our sins. It’s about the confidence of knowing that our sins are gone and forgiven and just being free.

…our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Beautiful, how water is used in different ways. And here, how is that accomplished? Because what is that pure water? It’s the holy spirit. That’s what blesses us in life, gives us ability to see and know things and live certain things and be in unity and oneness with God. It’s His power in the mind.

Let us hold fast, again and again and again here. Again, having to do with perseverance. When do you not hold fast? Well, it happens, doesn’t it?

Let us hold fast the, it says “confession” here and King James says “profession,” but it’s a word that means “agreement.” Let us hold fast the agreement of our hope. What’s this about? Agreement? We made an agreement with God at baptism. We entered into a covenant relationship with God at baptism. We belong to God. That says it all.

And let us consider one another, again, a little awkward here in some of this, So, let us consider, it means “to take note of.” So, God wants us to think of one another, each other in the Body. We are in a fellowship. And let us take note of, to remember, to think about, one another in order to stir love and good works. So, this is written a little bit different, some of the translations there, and sometimes it’s misunderstood.

It’s like this thing we talked about earlier about what we can do toward others, “exhorting others, one another.” It’s about you. It’s about what you’re living. It’s about how you’re living your life. It’s about your speech and how we talk to one another, how we think about one another.

So again, take note of one another in order to stir, that’s what it’s about, in order to stir love (agape.) How in the world do you do that? Because that comes from God. That kind of mind, that kind of thinking is something that comes from God. It’s God’s love. It’s something that we can have in our life.

… let us hold fast the agreement without wavering, for He is faithful who promised. So again here, very basic, what it’s talking about here. Not going back and forth, as it is, in what we promised before God, what we’re striving to live.

Let us take note of one another in order to stir to love. Because if we don’t think about one another how are we ever going to be an example? How are we ever going to have the kind of fellowship if we don’t think about each other, consider one another at different times and recognize the value of the fellowship we have, learn to love each other more? Because that comes from God. Our ability to love each other more, you have to pray about that; to ask God for help to love each other more with His love.

That kind of love is not condemning, it’s not finding fault, it’s not holding on to things of the past that someone said or did or whatever that might have hurt our feelings and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s letting go. It’s learning to do what God has done to us – forgiven us. We’re to be forgiving, to be patient. That’s what grace is.

That’s why I love sermons when we’ve gone into in times past (it’s been a long time), about grace. Because grace is about receiving forgiveness from God, but it’s not something we receive selfishly. It’s something we’re supposed to live to others, be forgiving, forgiving in our thinking.

Patient. God is patient with us. Grace is to respond to that, to ourselves, to learn to be patient with others. God is merciful to us, a part of grace. We’re to learn to be merciful to others. On and on it goes. That’s what this is about. In order to serve. The more we do that, each one of us, the more God’s spirit works in our lives within the Body and these things are stirred up amongst ourselves, the bond, the closeness.

Not forsaking assembling of ourselves in assembly, as it should be translated, what these words mean. So, a long time ago this had been used, basically, as a matter of showing that this is about the Sabbath. The reality is this isn’t just about the Sabbath. Yes, the Sabbath can be a very big part of it because so much of this happens in a Sabbath, but this is about something we’re supposed to understand in our relationship as fellowship, as a matter of fellowship.

Yes, with God every day. Hope we get that. But also one another, to think about one another. Why? Because we’re a part of the Body of Christ. We’re a part of the Church of God, God’s people, God’s Church.

It isn’t some kind of a private relationship that we can pray to God and have a special relationship with God and be okay with Him when we’re not okay with one another. Because that doesn’t go together. Because if we’re not okay with one another we are not okay with God. And that’s been a toughie for the Church to learn through time. It’s really, really tough. It’s everyone’s relationships are judged by God. What are we doing? Are we living this? Because this is what it’s talking about, how we’re living it. That’s what fellowship is about, true fellowship, coming before God with a true heart.

So again, Not forsaking assembling of ourselves in assembly. So, what an awesome thing when we’re able to have, be together as God’s people. Now, we understand what that means on a spiritual plane with God, and we do that, and we do that on the Sabbath. But we should do that every day of our life. We better not be forsaking that relationship of assembling before God, especially on the days He set aside as an assembly. So obviously, then, it would include those things.

But do we see the bigger picture on a spiritual plane? Because it’s about the family. It’s about opportunities we have. It is about something that does happen on the Sabbath day most often. This is when we come together. But it’s how we come together that God’s concerned.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves in assembly, as the manner of some, but… It’s about ourselves, again, this exhorting thing. It’s “beseeching” here, the Greek word, again, “beseeching.” …but beseeching. And the word “one another” is not in there at all. It was added. It’s in italics if it’s in your Bible. It’s not there. It’s about us. It’s about what we’re doing. It’s about ourselves. That’s what the word literally means. It goes back to ourselves in context.

…but ourselves beseeching, and so much more as the see the day approaching. So, what is this about again? It’s about this relationship with God first and foremost, but it’s also about His people. That’s what He wants us to think about, to understand. It’s about a fellowship that God has given us, to value that fellowship, to value this relationship that we have with one another and to grow in that. This is the time to be doing that more, to be focusing on this more. Because this is what God is offering us as a Church, as a Body. Think about that. Pray about that.

The last part of this verse 25…and so much more as you see the day approaching. The more we grow, maybe the older we get, there is a day approaching, and how you’ve lived at that point in time becomes exceedingly important. If we’ve lived it and we die, great. But it has more of a meaning to us today because of the time in which we live, because we realize when we look at this in that context, we’re living this in a manner that no one else ever has.

So, others in times past have been able to look at this and think about that time that’s coming and strive to live their lives accordingly, but what an incredible thing when you know this is the time, this is the time that God’s Kingdom is about to come to this earth. Awesome! That Christ is about to return.

Again here, because of where we are in time the reality is what God is even showing us more of is we need to be closer than ever as the Body of Christ. That’s why for some time now, especially going back to 2012, 2013 especially, and this process we’ve been going through of the temple being cleansed, of our being measured, in that respect, that this has been going on, this has been taking place, and it’s being purified in a manner as a Body that it really hasn’t had to be as in times past.

The reason for that is because people just lived and died and there are many who died who just weren’t a part of the Body spiritually. It’s just the way it was. They came to services, they lived certain things, but they weren’t there. This is different now because we’re at a point where it becomes far more important where we are. Because this Body must be cleansed before Christ returns, purified. The reality, whatever part isn’t, it will not be there. It will have potential, blessing of being in the Great White Throne, but not a part of all this. Just because of where we are.

That’s a unique thing to understand about the time we live in and the need to apply this even that much more in our lives. Because the reality is, as God has been blessing us to be told over and over again in recent time, we need each other in the Body and we are to love one another within the Body, that we are a family. That ability, the concept needs to become stronger in our minds on a spiritual plane. We need to grow in that.

So again here, this is a part of what we do to be a part. See, just to come together on the Sabbath isn’t assembling if it’s not in truth and spirit, if we’re not practicing and living, doing it, the way God says to do it. It’s about a fellowship we’re to have, to think about one another, to recognize the importance of one another and have that desire toward one another, to make sure we’re cleansed in our thinking toward one another, that we do love one another, that we’re living by what God has given us. This is the kind of assembly that honors God, that God desires for us to have.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves as the manner of some, but beseeching… Beseeching God first and foremost. And so much more as you see the day approaching.

For if we sin willfully… This is the context. This is what it’s about. So, if we don’t respond and do things the way God says to do within the Body, and to get the big picture of the value, the importance of the Body to Him…?

That’s why I cringe sometimes when I think about Passover and I’ve known of so many times when I’ve known of people going into Passover and doing it wrong. Not in the formality of how it’s taken but spiritually because their minds have had recent incident within the Body of conflict, of opposition, of strife, of drama, and all those things, that if we don’t repent of them, they are a curse to us.

To take the Passover and not to take it right. Because to take it right is not a matter of just a formality, but to learn from that formality and what Paul says in Corinthians there about this mind that we need to have, this perception that we need to have to be able to perceive the Body of Christ. It’s the Church. It’s God’s Church. And we need to grasp the importance of our relationship to one another because that reflects our true relationship with God.

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth… So, this is magnified then many, many times over. All that God gives us, all that He teaches us from Sabbath to Sabbath, it’s to come into our life and live. We are to live it.

It says, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. What a horrible thing that people could come to that point in time to receive the knowledge of the truth and to sin, and to sin willfully? And yet every year it happens. Every year. What a horrifying thing! It truly is. Because first of all, it’s against God, number one. If we don’t listen to God and strive to live by every word of God, and especially in those things He’s giving us in this end-time, in this end of this age with all the truth He’s given us? We’ve been given so much truth, and so, it’s so important we don’t sin willfully. And by ignoring something that God has told us and we just don’t pay attention to it like we should and hold fast to what God has revealed to us and pray about those things that God gives to us…?

It says here, For if we’ve received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. So again, it’s a matter of repentance, isn’t it? If were not repenting like we should be, because we sin willfully, because there is something we want, we want to do or whatever that’s contrary to what God says we should be doing. We want to hold on to something against someone else, we want to be able to have our little arguments and disruptions and not get a hold of them like we should with someone else in the Body, what a horrible, horrible thing, especially in something so basic as far as how we live, let alone other truths that God has given us.

But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. I think, what a horrible thing. I know there’s so much more that God’s going to reveal to us in time, especially within the Family once it’s resurrected and changed, the first great resurrection, about this matter of judgment and judging and so forth that He has started to reveal in part in a larger manner.

Just like the Millennium and the Great White Throne, to let us know that just because it’s the Millennium doesn’t mean it’s a picnic. Just because God’s government is on this earth and 144,000 are with Christ doesn’t mean it’s going to be a picnic for the whole… It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a utopia at all because carnal human nature is going to be there, and people are going to make choices that don’t agree with God.

That’s kind of hard to grasp, but the reality is, it’s true. And so, to come through all this when it’s all said and done may not be as large as maybe people have thought in times past. Because the concept in a protestant world is that everyone is going to be saved. I mean, that’s kind of the thinking. It’s like, God’s going to save everyone.

No, He’s not. No, not at all. Because it comes down to what everyone chooses, and if they don’t really choose God with all their heart, with all their being, and really want it with all their being and are committed and convicted and love it, God’s not going to give it to them. On the contrary, they’re going to be forgotten in time. God does not owe His way of life to us. He blesses us with physical life, which is incredible in itself, but a spiritual one that will go forever in time? That’s another matter.

What will be left? How much out of all mankind? The majority? I don’t believe that with any of my being whatsoever.

Verse 28—Anyone who has rejected... King James says, “despised.” Greek means “to set side or to do away with” what’s been laid down, in essence. Anyone who's rejected Moses’ law died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot? Sometimes it’s hard for us to really grasp the reality of what sin does and how God looks upon it and how He wants us to see it.

Because when we sin, this is what we’re doing and the Passover is precious to God. His Son died for it, to give it. Then if we take lightly various things in life, and sin, “trampling the Son of God underfoot,” what a horrible thought. But God wants us to think that way, to realize the seriousness and the ugliness of what sin does when we allow it in our lives, when we bring it into our lives.

…and counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, just an ordinary thing. Not understanding how awesome, how great, how incredible it is what God has placed before us in the life of Christ and what he’s done and what he’s doing now. On and on it goes.

…and insulted or brought insult to, if you will, the spirit of grace. I don’t want to be guilty of that. Thank God we can be forgiven of every sin and it’s gone. What a blessing we can just go before God every day and repent.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Then again, The Eternal will judge His people, those things that were said. No one gets by without being judged. We don’t get by. No one who begins to let down and begins to trample underfoot the Son of God gets by with it in God’s Church. They’re put out either by God’s Church or by God directly. God has the power to do both. Sometimes He uses the Church, sometimes He deals directly.

Who wants to come under that? Who…? You’d think it’d be a simple question with a simple answer, but the reality is the vast majority of people who have ever been called and the vast majority of people who came out of the Apostasy have gone that way, even after all of that, who just refused to acknowledge and admit something they should be able to acknowledge and admit even carnally as a physical human being. But because of their stubbornness they’re still suffering, and they’ve lost so much and have become so protestant in action and thought because God’s not in it and God’s spirit isn’t there. What a horrible thing.

Because it’s not that hard to acknowledge God’s Church had an apostasy. Does it take God’s spirit to grasp that one, to acknowledge that, to look at that, of what happened to a church and what size it is now and what size different ones are now? To be able to just physically on a physical plane itself be able to address a certain matter of history and say, “Yes, what he did most assuredly fulfilled an abomination before God.”

God will take care of everything. Vengeance is His. He will repay. The Eternal will judge His people.

Those few out there who are still playing around, playing some games with God, it’s not going to last much longer. Because, you see, I know there are still going to be those, some, who go by the wayside before this is done because they’re not living what they’re supposed to be living. They’re lying to the Church. They’re lying to God. Some might even have an inkling of who they are.

Verse 32—But recall the former days in which after you were enlightened, given light. God wants us to remember our calling. Over and over again, just said in different ways. He wants us to remember what we went through because that’s a personal thing that no one should be able to take that away from you. To grasp the magnitude of what it was that, all of a sudden, we could see things that we couldn’t see before. We know those things have to come from God. Because you can’t go out and give it to anyone else and they be able to see it. We see that very early on when your mind was enlightened to the truth.

Then it says, but remember those things when you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. Was it easy? And has it been easy since?

That’s what perseverance is about, to realize what we’re in and to be able to see those things, what it was like in the beginning, what happened in families when people started standing up for the truth. What had happened in business and companies you might, wherever you worked, and different things that took place with neighbors or whatever, and all of a sudden, they don’t really like being around you anymore. You’ve gone off on a deep end. You’re not who you used to be. You’re not the same person.

I get a charge out of it sometimes when we grow to a point where we begin to think, “You know, they’re not the same person I used to think, you know, and run around with them.” You fail to realize, no, it’s you that’s changing. They’re still the same. It’s kind of a funny thing if you understand what I’m talking about.

Verse 33—You endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly why you became companions of those who were so treated.

Once we became a part of the Church and our fellowship was with others who are going through the same sort of thing, what an incredible fellowship to have. That’s why we need each other. We grow in love toward each other and recognize we’re in this together. We all go through a lot of hard things out here. It’s not easy living in this world, living in this world that everything pulls away from God and bombards you, seeks to bombard you with wrong thinking, wrong thoughts.

Everything that you see out there, I don’t care where it is. You can drive down a highway and on billboards and the stupidity, the garbage, the foolishness of life that’s up there. “You need this to be happy.” “You need this to be fulfilled.” Sometimes they light it up at night because it’s so important to them. They want you to see it or to buy into it. That’s really more about what it’s about.

So, what an incredible fellowship we have. This is why we’re shown these things.

Partly, why you are made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations. It’s not easy. It’s never been easy. It’s hard and it can be hard in the mind. The reason it sometimes is hard in the mind is because we still resist. We have to deal with that. The less we resist the easier it is to deal with the other, to come to a point where we’re able to think more like, “They can’t help it. Don’t have to get involved in their drama. They just can’t help it. They’re caught up in it.” We don’t have to be caught up in it. We just get away from it. Doesn’t have to come into here. I don’t have to even hear it.

I don’t like drama. I have learned to really loathe drama. Everything in the world is about drama anymore, and if we’re not careful we learn to thrive on it. There are people in God’s Church who have a problem with thriving on a little too much drama. It exists and it shouldn’t be that way. You don’t want to thrive on drama. You don’t want to have that be something that you want to share with others, the drama you’re going through and why you’re going through it and the drama you’re seeing in other people’s lives and then spread this drama around with others because we all want to share in it, don’t we? Don’t we want to share in the drama?!

I don’t. I have more peace when there is no drama. I’ve learned that. I love that. I love God’s peace. Peace of mind, the truth, the way of life to be lived, the ability to deal with drama. You think, they can’t help that, that’s their world and I’m not going to be a part of that. Sad, the world.

You also had compassion on me in my chains, in his bonds. Paul is talking about what he went through, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Again, it’s about what God has promised. It’s about God being there and His power and might and what the Church understands, what we are able to know and understand.

And certainly, they went through hard times. The Church has always gone through hard, difficult times and Paul is addressing something here that was very hard on the Church and what they were going through. And yet their response and their desire to share… That’s a mindset we have when we are close to God, when we’re living God’s way of life, this unique fellowship that we’re able to have that surpasses Philadelphia, surpasses Philia.

Some who insist on holding to… “I’m Philadelphian!” “I am Philadelphian and everyone else that’s out there who was a part, they’re Laodicean. I’m the Philly.” You think, sad, because that’s not God’s love. It’s a fraternal love. “Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand you’re holding on to a fraternal thinking that’s lifted you up and filled you with greater pride than ever before, that God doesn’t intend in any fashion or form?” What a horrible thing to live under that kind of burden, that kind of oppression, that kind of a lie. We should want God’s spirit and God’s love living in us.

Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. And yet every year, brethren, that’s what some do. They cast away that confidence, that ability that God has given that we can have to know and to understand various things. Yet because of various pulls, whatever it might be, because of various trials, because of various lusts, whatever it is that pulls us away from the truth, gives up.

Ceases to live Israel. Ceases to be Israel. What a horrible thing. Ceases to persevere.

I’m going to finish these three verses then we’ll stop.

For you have need of patient, as the word is, endurance. Both words are in this in the meaning. “Need of patient endurance.” This is very much a part of perseverance.

So that after you have done the will of God… So, we’re to live the will of God. The examples before, Christ came to do His will, He took away the first to establish the second. The first was the old system of sacrificing, of sacrificial law that didn’t do anything. Then Christ came to do His will and enable us—that’s the story—to do His will, to do God’s will.

That’s how we’re able to do God’s will, being able to be forgiven of sin, God dwelling in us, we in God, able to live this way of life then. It comes from God. By His great power we’re led to His holy habitation and to abide with Him and Him with us. What an awesomely beautiful, wonderful, exciting thing to live, to live Israel.

For yet a little while he who is coming will come, and will not delay, not wait any longer. We think that way a lot. “I’m ready!” We think we’re ready. We thought we were ready several times! Got to say, it’s not over yet. There are some things that have to be done yet and in time you’ll know, you’ll know more and understand why. But you keep persevering with what you know, with what God has given you and the truth that’s there.

Verse 38—Now, the just shall live by faith. What a beautiful thing. The just, those who live justly before God, who want this way of life, who love God’s way of life, who don’t want to see it go by the wayside, who want to hold fast to it, who do want to persevere with all their being.

But if anyone draws back… And since the time of Christ and the Church was established in 31 A.D. the vast majority have drawn back. That’s so foreign, should be so foreign to our thinking. To think, how could it be possible that “many have been called and few have been chosen,” that the majority, the vast majority – not a small little majority, but the vast majority have turned aside, drawn back. To what?

…my soul has no pleasure in them. But we are not, or we are not to be of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of our life. Choices, wonderful choices that God has given to us. Awesome!