230205 Hebrews

Lords Day service

Sunday February 5th 2022

Purification

Opening Him Come Fount of every Blessing.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

1758

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

Robert Robinson had a rough beginning. His father died when he was young, and his mother, unable to control him, sent him to London to learn barbering. What he learned instead was drinking and gang-life. When he was 17, he and his friends reportedly visited a fortune-teller. Relaxed by alcohol, they laughed as she tried to tell their futures. But something about the encounter bothered Robert, and that evening he suggested to his buddies they attend the evangelistic meeting being held by George Whitefield.

Whitefield was one of history’s greatest preachers, with a voice that was part foghorn and part violin. That night he preached from Matthew 3:7: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Bursting into tears, Whitefield exclaimed, “Oh, my hearers! The wrath to come! The wrath to come!”

Robert immediately sobered up and sensed Whitefield was preaching directly to him. The preacher’s words haunted him for nearly three years, until December 10, 1755, when he gave his heart to Christ.

Robert soon entered the ministry, and three years later at age 23, while serving Calvinist Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England, he wrote a hymn for his sermon on Pentecost Sunday. It was a prayer that the Holy Spirit flood into our hearts with His streams of mercy, enabling us to sing God’s praises and remain faithful to Him. “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” has been a favorite of the church since that day.

Robinson continued working for the Lord until 1790, when he was invited to Birmingham, England, to preach for Dr. Joseph Priestly, a noted Unitarian. There, on the morning of June 8, he was found dead at age 54, having passed away quietly during the night.

Take a few moments to offer this hymn as a personal prayer, especially remembering those last insightful lines:

Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Prayers

Kirby

Max

Praying for the spirit this morning.

IN Hebrews we know him as the Creator God. With the generic identification as the Elohim who stands apart and above every Elohim. For with this Elohim none of the lesser Elohim would exist

Colossians 1:16–17 (ESV) — 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

You might be sincere and well intentioned to live the spiritual life. You may be looking for an in with God. Is it works? Is it that you should pursue a ministry of some sort. Or something to give your life away to? Is there an “ought” that you feel like you are missing, but just don’t know what it is that you ought to be doing for the Lord.

On another note, you may be struggling with some sin or sins that you just cannot get a handle on. You keep doing what you are not to do and reframing who what it is that are to do. That is sins of commission and omission.

You have problems with picking up and reading the bible. You have problems with spending time in prayer.

In short you are failing to live the spiritual life but it is not the fact that spirit is failing to bring you to the place you want to be or need to be it is that your focus is all wrong. Your flesh is proving to be the failure that it is. Your focus is all wrong.

Our spiritual lives are brought out and lived by out focus on who and what Christ is. Do you know Jesus? Is he just a name attached to a doctrinal statement a name you sign your prayer off with or is Jesus something bigger than that?

The writer directs attention from the Elohim of Genesis 1 and the Logos of John 1 to the person of Jesus Christ in Hebrews 1.

Throughout the Tanakh the prophets wrote and prophesied of the coming one. In his incarnation he was manifested and in these last days we anticipate his return.

Our lives as Christians is one of a bride waiting for her bridegroom. Though being separated the bride is occupied with the thought of her beloved as he is occupied with her.

But sadly only those whose perspective lies with that reality are really living the life that God intends.

How you answer the question within your heart and occupy yourself with the image of Christ will dictate your daily and even moment by moment response to the reality that you are in Christ and He in you.

Amen

Who is your Christ.

The message of salvation.

He is the Son of God

He has been Appointed heir of all things.

It is Jesus Christ that controls history. It is who created this universe, set the clock and controls is sovereign over the ages.

He is the exact image of his Father.

As sons and daughters cannot be denied by their appearance and matter to be the offspring of their parents Jesus is the exact

HE is the sustainer of all things.

It is power of Christ that holds every molecule in it’s place. Every electron in every Adam maintains its orbit even as the planets in the heavens maintain their orbit curtesy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every heart beat should provoke a moment by moment thanksgiving because the heart goes on beating curtesy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh have you enjoyed gravity today?

Thank you Lord.

The writer opens up to Jewish Christians and to all Christians who are either going into the fight, are in the fight, or coming out the fight. IN fact there were those then and now who enter into the fight and never come out of the struggle for they are on enemy territory up holding the banner of the Lord.

How we fight and how long we persevere is what perspective we hold of the Christ our God and Savior.

Our redeemer

When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

The first hurdle of man is to get eyes off himself and eyes on God. In Seeking God man begins often with where he stands morally or even immorally. There are those who think that they are good enough to be accepted by God and there are those who believe that, “if God really knew what he or she had done one would never be forgiven.”

Even in the spiritual life we tend to weigh who are we are by our works. Did not matter a hill of beans for salvation it means nothing for sanctification.

If in fact you think that you and God are peas and carrots your first problem is that you do not know God.

For we are sinners

Romans 3:23 (ESV) — 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

This is the fact that we cannot meet the righteousness of God on our own terms.

Now some are satisfied with that truth and thus they live as the heathens embracing their sin Nature and ignoring the mandate for holiness.

They say that no one can be perfect.

Yes, we will need to discuss how can the desperately sinning saint have communion with a infinitely righteous and pure God?

Grace covers us that we may approach God, but a means by which we approach God must be adhered to.

Point of Doctrine:

we cannot approach God on our own terms

we must approach God on His terms.

WE did not receive salvation on our own terms neither can we enter into holiness living the spiritual life on our own programing seeking a covering of our sins through out own dead works. There must be a way to be purified when we are approaching God. And without knowing and following Christ there can be no holiness within the life of the believer apart from positional sanctification.

When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

[2752] καθαρισμός katharismos 7× ceremonial cleansing, purification, Lk. 2:22; 5:14; mode of purification, Jn. 2:6; 3:25; cleansing of lepers, Mk. 1:44; met. expiation, Heb. 1:3; 2 Pet. 1:9* [2512]

[281] ἁμαρτία hamartia 173× error; offence, sin, Mt. 1:21; a principle or cause of sin, Rom. 7:7; proneness to sin, sinful propensity, Rom. 7:17, 20; guilt or imputation of sin, Jn. 9:41; Heb. 9:26; a guilty subject, sin-offering, expiatory victim, 2 Cor. 5:21 [266] See sin.

By the end of the first section of the creation account we read

Genesis 1:31–2:2 (ESV) — 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

God rested not because he was tired. God rested because his work was done.

But then in verse four Moses writes

Genesis 2:4 (ESV) — 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

This is the header that begins the whole fall and redemption thread that runs throughout the bible. The principle is that God made it all perfect, this is how it got messed up and how God is going to redeem it.

He takes us back in detail starting with day three of creation and takes us to the creation of man as God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives.

Then to complete man he created the woman taking from the side of the man. And by the close of Genesis 2 we read

Genesis 2:25 (ESV) — 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

This had nothing to do with the bodily nakedness of the two in the garden. They could have been wearing all assortment of leaves to there own pleasure and amusement.

It was the fact that there was an innocence about them. They had no sin and they could stand before a Holy God without the need of atonement.

All of that changed when man steps outside the boundaries of God’s law.

There was but one Law.

Genesis 2:16–17 (ESV) — 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

There was nothing intrinsically wrong with the tree. In beauty I do not think that it was any more or less beautiful then any other tree in the garden. It would have been just as easy to avoid it as it was to be attracted to except for one thing. It was the one that the Lord set apart from all the others.

When the two took from it they became Law breakers and yes, that day they did die to a relationship with God and subject not only to physical death but to eternal or the second death.

The question is how can a loving God cast his creatures into the Lake of fire.

The real question is how can a holy God not cast his creatures into the lake of fire.

And why does a holy God continue to keep man around for another second.

You see, God’s love does not contradict God’s justice.

Where there is perfect justice there will be consequences for sin.

Genesis 3:7 (ESV) — 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

IN Chapter 3 at the point of sin something awakens in man.

A conscience which is a gift from God that is the warning light on our souls. We might not be able to know what the problem is with the engine but we know that there is a problem.

The warning light was Shame and guilt which accompanies sin. The man and woman were both in perfect environment and the problem was that they were not compatible with that environment.

A sinner finds comfort in the fallen world. The sinner finds companionship with other sinners, but a sinner has a problem with a place where righteousness dwells standing the presence of a righteous God.

This was Jacob when he woke up the realization of the holiness of the place where he had met the Lord.

Genesis 28:16–17 (ESV) — 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Previously there was perfect harmony between the creator and his creation. He created man in such away that he could commune with man. Not that God was lonely and needed companionship but because God is Love and choses to create a being that could respond to all that God is and find joy in that relationship.

A relationship is between two persons. When man sinned and broke off the relation man hurt himself but he hurt a loving God more.

We can’t understand and some are reluctant to think of God having any sentiment but with no apologies I have a harder time viewing God as insensitive leaving him mechanical and unemotional, though I know that his entire being is beyond what any of us will ever come to know.

So. Don’t tell me that God is or is not. Don’t say that he feels or feels not. Or has emotions or not, because quite frankly we do not know except what God has revealed of himself.

We do see the grieving of God in genesis 6 as the Lord looked upon the wickedness of man

We do see the grieving of Jesus outside the tomb of Lazarus.

And we know that sin grieves the holy spirit Ephesians 4:30.

So when I say that a relationship is between two and when that relationship is broken it affects both.

And it is that God so loves the world, and that he wishes none to perish that God has to work.

He cannot forgive as to let bygones be bygones for that would violate his integrity. Both his veracity and his justice.

Man certainly had no position to Bargen with God and that is what he tried to do with the fig leaves.

I will say this.

That at least man’s conscience was intact. He knew that he was a sinner. He was not comfortable with the situation and he sought to cover up his nakedness.

We live now in the time where Nakedness is a virtue. We saw it in the 60s with the free love and the flaunting of the bodies and we see it rampant now. Sin is out in the open and it is nothing more than the society thumbing their noses and mooning God.

We cover our faces with masks to hide our essence and we flaunt out bodies to brag of our sins.

Woe is us.

I am a man of unclean lips living among men with unclean lips.

I am helpless without the Lord stepping in and intervening.

It is he and he alone with no help from me that can purify me and bring me to a right place with Him.

Closing Hymn He hideth my Soul

popular hymn writer.

He Hideth My Soul may have been Crosby’s prayer throughout her life. While a renowned songwriter, her life was not easy.

As an infant, Fanny Crosby lost her eyesight due to fever and poor ministrations in her care. She lived the rest of her life blind, but later stated “If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind…for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Saviour.”

As a young woman she went to the New York Institution for the Blind. While there she met Alexander Van Alystyne, who joined the faculty alongside her. She later wrote “After hearing several of my poems he became deeply interested in my work; and I after listening to his sweet strains of music became interested in him. Thus we soon grew to be very concerned for each other…love met love, and all the world was changed. We were no longer blind, for the light of love showed us where the lilies bloomed.”

The couple were married on March 5, 1858. The couple had a child who died as an infant. Fanny mourned the loss of her child for the remainder of her life.

Sadly, her marriage did not last and the couple eventually separated.

Fanny is said to have been full of energy, joy and have a zest for life. One biographer said “Even in extreme old age, she would tire out people twenty or thirty years her junior.”

He Hideth My Soul is proof that Fanny Crosby relied on the Lord and turned to him for strength, comfort and renewal of the spirit and soul.

Fanny Crosby remained active in speaking and ministry until her death in 1915. She wrote over 8,000 hymns over the course of her life.

William J. Kirkpatrick provided the music for this beautiful hymn. He composed the music for many of her hymns.

He Hideth My Soul was one of many hymns written by Fanny Crosby