Hebrews (Program #18) – The Remaining Sabbath Rest (1)

Today we come in Hebrews to the matter of the Sabbath rest. How does a Christian enter in to the Sabbath rest? This is the subject of today’s life study.

Hebrews 4:9 says, “So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Many Christians debate whether our Sabbath is Saturday or Sunday or some other time period yet in the future. What is the New Testament revelation on this topic and how critical it is for us as Christians?

The New Testament doesn’t say too much about this issue but I guess it’s fitting that it is addressed in this book of Hebrews. There are several different views of the importance or the interpretation of the Sabbath in the New Testament. The Sabbath here in Hebrews has a very particular meaning and interpretation. There is a debate among some Christians whether to keep the Saturday or Sunday as the Sabbath. more…

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Hebrews (Program #17) – The Good Land for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose

The good land typified in the Old Testament is profoundly related to God’s eternal purpose to have a corporate expression. Hebrews 2:5 says, “For it was not to angels that He subjected the coming inhabited earth concerning which we speak.” Though we may long for heaven, it is the earth, the land, the good land that has occupied God from the ages for His purpose. We will see all this land typified in today’s life study of Bible.

Though we’re in the midst of the life study of Hebrews, today we’re going to touch many points that we first touched in the life study of Genesis for those that were with us at that time. What is the basis or the ground to draw upon the pictures that were presented in Genesis in order to help us with the book of Hebrews?

As we will soon see this particular message connects as the Bible does the matters of the land, Christ and God’s chosen people. In Genesis 1, we have these three matters either stated or implied. The land is obviously signified by the dry land that emerged from the dead waters on the third day. This dry land, the sphere for the living of the human beings created by God typifies Christ in resurrection. Significantly as Genesis 2:7 reveals, humankind was created from the dust of this land. more…

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Hebrews (Program #16) – Partners of Christ

As believers in Christ, we have a number of statuses – we’re the children of God, we’re the servants of God, we’re the disciples of Christ, we’re the sons of God, we’re members of Christ’s body and as we will see today, we are also partners of Christ. For God to accomplish His purpose requires the coordination and involvement of all three of the Godhead; but surprisingly, it also requires the involvement of Christ’s partners. Who are His partners?

It’s been wonderful to see both from Romans and now from Hebrews that we are Christ’s brothers, this is quite a realization to our Christian life. But today we find out that we are also His partners. Why does the eternal and all-powerful God need partners?

Though God is eternal and all-powerful, we must see also that He is very purposeful and He’s chosen to accomplish His purpose by His infinite wisdom. God’s intention was really with man even in eternity past. If you remember back in Genesis, it talks about God having a council saying “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. When He first created man, His intention was to get into man, to be life to man – and therefore, He needs man. He needs these partners to carry out what He’s doing. more…

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Hebrews (Program #15) – Christ as the Apostle Superior to Moses

Most Christians know Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Today we will see Jesus as the apostle sent by God. Why was He sent and what was He sent to do? This is the subject of our message today.

The early chapters in Hebrews present one comparison after another of Christ to the cherished items of the old covenant. And this comparison now brings us to Moses, the most revered of all the Old Testament figures. Once again our Christ is superior!

Hebrews is a wonderful book of comparisons. The writer is convincing his fellow Hebrews that Christ and God’s economy in Christ is far superior to the Old Testament economy. So the comparison begins by comparing the God of the Old Testament who spoke in the prophets in various ways with the God of the New Testament who is speaking in the Son. The comparison is clear that the speaking of God in the Son, and therefore, the God in the New Testament is much more clear, definite, and, substantial than the Old Testament God that the Hebrews knew. more…

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Hebrews (Program #14) – Holy Brothers and Partakers of the Heavenly Calling

The New Testament book of Hebrews presents the gospel of Christ in a deep and profound way. it is even been called the high gospel. What is this high gospel?  We will discover today on the life study of the Bible.

This will be an inspiring word today. I think inspiring all of us to get into and preach this high gospel that we’re having unveil to us in the book of Hebrews. What is high about this presentation of the gospel as compare to what we typically consider?

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Hebrews (Program #13) – A Merciful and Faithful High Priest

What we need to do every day is to open our entire being to Him.  Even right now, we can pray “Lord I like to open my entire being to you without reservation. I want to receive You, I want to be filled with You and Lord I want You be everything to Me and I want You to do everything in me through me and for me so I can be one with You to carry out Your purpose.”

Hebrews, perhaps more than any other book in the Bible, reveals that as believers we have received a Christ that is far more than just our Savior.  We received a merciful and faithful high priest and a captain of our salvation.  We see Him unveiled in these rich and profound aspects in today’s life study of the Bible.

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Hebrews (Program #12) – The Many Sons, the Many Brothers, the Church

Only one verse in the New Testament book of Hebrews mentions the church.  Hebrews 2:12 reveals the church in a marvelous way.  We will see the Son of God attending and even participating in this first gathering of the church in today’s life study of the Bible.

We are going to see three basic factors of God’s economy developed today.   The significance of these three items in the context of Hebrews; number one, the church, number two, the many sons and number three, the many brothers.

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Hebrews (Program #11) – The Sanctifier and the Sanctified

The history of the Christian faith shows us that the great truth of God’s eternal plan were first given to man in Scripture but then lost during centuries of darkness and then later recovered by God moving in His Body.  Such was the case with justification by faith and its recovery during the time of Martin Luther.  We will see another great item of recovery – sanctification, in today’s life study of the Bible.

We mentioned the matter of recovery.  We are going to hear Witness Lee refer to it today in our message several times.  For those listening that may not understand what we mean by this term in its historical context.  It might help if we could have a look at the meaning of the word “recovery”.

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Hebrews (Program #10) – The Captain of Salvation (2)

This wonderful Jesus is not only our Savior but He is also the marvelous captain of our salvation. And He is leading us even during this broadcast into the goal of our salvation. Glory is God expressed – this may seem simple but nonetheless this is what the Bible reveals. But just as we need our entire body to be adequately expressed, God desires to bring us as the members of His body into the region of His glory. So He’s provided us with a captain of salvation to lead us into glory.

We’ve spoken our first life study of Hebrews about though it’s a mysterious and somewhat hidden book to a lot of Christians when we’re given just one or two keys, it opens up like a flower. We’ve just spoken of the two of the keys that we’ve been given and these will be part of our life study today: river-crossers and the captain of salvation. more…

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Hebrews (Program #9) – The Captain of Salvation (1)

God’s goal is not to bring us to heaven. The goal of God’s salvation is to bring us into the very glory which in Christ has been sown into us at the time of our regeneration. Christ is many things to His saved ones. We may appreciate Him as our Savior and our Redeemer or may be even as our friend. But Hebrews unveils Him as the Captain of our Salvation. We’ll see Him as the fighting captain in today’s life study of the Bible.

Logically, we think that for salvation you need a savior or a redeemer but why do we need a captain for our salvation?

We need to make it emphatically clear that we surely need Christ as the Savior and we absolutely need Christ as the Redeemer. There’s no way to be saved without this personal Savior, the God-man. And we surely need Him as the Redeemer who bought us back with His precious blood and has brought us back to God that we may enjoy God as everything to us in Christ as the Spirit. Regrettably, many believers have a shallow even elementary concept of salvation. If we understand salvation merely as a rescue from hell to heaven then we don’t really need a captain. We just need a savior and a redeemer, one who allegedly who brings us out of the likelihood of going to hell and brings us to heaven. However, the goal of God’s salvation is not heaven. We are told in the book of Hebrews that God is bringing many sons into glory. For this we need a captain. Why? more…

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