Exhortation Faith/Promises

Readings

Brothers and Sisters in the Hope that we share, at the start of this, last month of the year, we read Hebrews and chapter 11 in our daily readings. That chapter is known as being a chapter of faith, so we will touch on faith in our exhortation. Our readings are one of the gifts that Yahweh has bestowed upon us, and does so on a daily basis, if we are willing to carry them out. Ideally, they should be part of our daily routine, something that is first in our queue to take some of time, that we have been granted each day. Other worldly things should be set aside, so that we can learn from and hear about the truth within the scriptures, that we may be washed daily with his word.

As we come to the end of the year, have we slackened in our readings and other things to do with the truth. Have we weakened as the year went on? We are at a time of endings, a time when the world around us says that it is to remember Christs birth, but its really about pagan traditions , gluttony and greed. It is also a time when as the year has gone on, with no return of Christ, we may have weakened in our resolve, and in doing so, we are more susceptible to the lure of the falseness around us. So it’s a time when we should try and hold fast and strengthen our resolve and look at scripture even the more intensely.

The world, is about to set new years resolutions, about things they could do better in the year to come, but then often fail in their endeavours soon after. We should renew our resolve to have an active faith and strengthen that faith, but daily, not yearly.

We shall start our exhortation in Ephesians and chapter one with the words of the Apostle Paul

“To the faithful in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1v1).

These words may seem very simple on the surface, but they are Very important words, because they express to us all, the magnificence of our special relationship with Yahweh our Heavenly Father through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. It also unites all of us, because we share in that same faith. One True GOD, the only Son and the unity of one faith provided for us all in the saving name of Jesus the Christ.

verses 3 - 5 of this first chapter:-

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”

We should all thank Yahweh day by day shouldn’t we, for all that we have and for what is to come? We have our readings, we have our fellowship one with another, our meetings, our prayers, and we have that hope of a place in the kingdom, to come. But do we use the gifts that have been bestowed upon us, the readings and that fellowship one with another, in our meetings, and our communication through prayer, as often as we should.

Do we need to remind ourselves of the words of comfort and warning, from the Lord jesus in verse 20

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

We only need to open our Bibles and to be with the Lord Jesus who we are here to remember this morning, and we have just read these words

“who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” ()

Our Bible is our heavenly place in Christ!

We are with our Lord every time we open our Bible or think about what our Lord has done for us, or when we share fellowship one with another, discussing our walk to the kingdom, he is with us every moment of our life, if we are faithful. We should remind ourselves of this every day and in our every action, and yes it is a comfort for us, but also a warning, that we should strive to be always faithful, forgiving and thankful, for all we have, as Yahweh and Jesus are there, always at hand to help, and prepare us for the kingdom. That we may, Yahweh willing, receive that gift of eternal life, to praise him forever.

We have been given the gift of prayer our communication to Yahweh, through our mediator and saviour the Lord Jesus Christ

verse 15, Paul says:-

“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints”.

I know Paul here is talking to the Ecclesia in Ephesus, but these words apply to us all, and to all ages of people.

For if we are faithful, if we ‘agape’ love each other, ours is a saintly inheritance, Paul tells us this in verse 18 ;

“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”.

This is where our faith should lead us; it should take us onwards to our inheritance! Our inheritance is in our Lord, no other person in this world can provide this for us, and we are lost if we do not realise this.

In recent years we have experienced the downfall of the global monitory world, men’s hearts did absolutely fail them for fear! Their faith in the world’s banking systems was being shattered, large companies suddenly collapsing, well known brands disappearing one after the other.;some of the biggest in 2018 remmington firearms valued at 921M, Claires accessories 2,000M, Iheart media 13,000M, all hope for them was disappearing as fast as they watched their stock fall, one after another; from one end of the earth, to the other. Shopping centres once packed with shoppers feeling like it would never end and they would continue making money, now deserted and being purchased by councils at huge £m discounts, and only partially filled with charity stores and discount shops. In the last month 4 large volcanoes have erupted around the world causing tsunami’s. Men’s hearts are truly failing them for fear of what has happened and what is to come.

It should be a wake up call for us all, life can change in a moment, no matter how much money, strength health, power, all can be ended in an instant and out of our control.

The world’s leaders begging the ordinary man’s representatives to bail out the banking system, companies asking for money from banks that still might be able to provide, or private investors willing to put their own fortunes on the line for the existence of a company or brand name. Countries falling apart, and it doesn’t have to be a big event, even at the smallest of actions by single people ripple through the country.

We should be constantly watching for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, our eyes wide open to the events of this world. We have been taken by surprise before, a single man in Egypt sets himself on fire and not long after the country false into chaos and so the surrounding countries, by seemingly one mans actions. Then most recently the largest financial economy in the world, America shuts down, people are sent home without pay, and the repercussions of this will undoubtedly be felt around the world the longer it goes on, this was in January this year, another shutdown happened this month. Also Donald trump causing ripples around the world even with a single tweet on a phone app, or Putin taking action in countries and blatantly denying his involvement even with evidence stacked against him. As instructed in the scriptures we must be continually watchful and ready, for we know not even what the next second will bring, let alone tomorrow. Our every thought, action or saying may be our last.

But we can see here the will of Yahweh shaping the world for the things to come. Are we brothers and sisters like the virgins prepared, or are we caught unawares with little or no oil in our lamps, are we asleep to the coming of the lord Jesus, have we fallen back into the world. The false gods of mammon is fast becoming their downfall, beware that it is not ours too!

Our faith; in yahweh; provides us with a much better hope than this world can provide, with it’s reliance on mankind.

In verses 10-12Paul expresses this hope for us.

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”

We need faith and in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 were read of a list of faithful people whose lives we can follow; walking in their footsteps.

Faithful men are in all ages! We also have examples Abel, who worshipped in faith, by providing the acceptable sacrifice, Enoch who walked in faith, lived his whole life to Yahweh, Noah who witnessed in faith, with 120 years of preaching before the flood came, Abraham who wandered in faith, doing all that Yahweh asked of him till he could find a true place to rest in.

This is the true hope of all the faithfull who believe in God’s true word and follow His Son as the perfect example of that one, true faith. Paul, in verses 13 - 16 assures us with his words because of two key words, they are persuaded and embraced: as we read:-

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

Is this not true for us also; we are persuaded; we are embraced in truth by our faith, so much so that we seek that same country. If at any time our faith seems to falter, we only need to read verse 16. This verse should strengthen us in our endeavour to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and follow him in faith and hope all our lives.

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Yahweh is called our God, he is not ashamed of us, neither should we be ashamed of him! We can stand tall, we are upright in our faith, we are in fellowship with Jesus by that same faith, because Yahweh loves us, as sometimes we can feel that we are not worthy of his love because of circumstances at the time, but he does love us, nothing wavering, nothing to shake our faith, from us! It is sure and firm. Yahweh so loved this world that He gave His only Son to die; that we may have hope.

Paul, in this second chapter of Ephesians reminds us of how we were in our lives before we took on the saving name of Jesus, we were dead in trespasses and sins. In the second verse he reminds us of how, in the past, we walked according to the way we lived our lives, in the world, and that this was in line, with the children of disobedience.

Verse 3, really brings this home to us how we lived and would continue to live, had we not taken on the saving name of Jesus, and verse 3:-

“Whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

This lowers human nature down to its very base level, and shows to us how far our faith in Yahweh has projected us into a hope of a better faithful life. The next 4 verses explain to us how this was accomplished for us:- (verses 4 - 8)

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”

In verses 10 - 12, it shows us how this love came to us:-

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

Verse 13 now; at the time of exhortation, shows how faith unites us all throughout this world and gives us all hope in our time of need:

- “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

And by this exhortation and others we have each week, and now a year closer to the kingdom. We regularly remember the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he said,

“this do in remembrance of me”

The Greek here in these verses can be better translated:

“in memorial of me”,

Which shows in clearer terms, to identify with the significance of the sacrifice that he made for us and himself. In doing this momentous act , the Lord Jesus is the one above all others whom we should remember.

As we have said lists many faithful witnesses, who, together with us, are in that position of privilege through their faith in the sacrifice of Yahweh’s beloved Son, who is

“the author and finisher of faith” ().

The brothers and sisters to those the Apostle Paul was writing were renouncing their faith in the sacrifice of Christ and going back to the works of the Law. Their former conviction in the Lord Jesus Christ was obvious by their love for the Apostle Paul.

So we read in ,

that “ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come,and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition: but of them that believe to the saving of the soul”.

The Apostle quotes from the prophet Habakkuk to introduce his words in chapter 11 on the heroes of faith. The background of Hebrews chs. 10, 11 and 12 is found in this short but powerful prophecy of Habakkuk. There are six important words in Habakkuk from which he draws, namely “the just shall live by faith”.

He uses these words to show that we are not justified or accounted righteous by the works of the Law, but by our active Faith and that is what should drive us on our walk together.

Let us turn to Habakkuk and chapter2 and verses 1-4 where habakuk declared:

“I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And Yahweh answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith”

The prophet is peering into the distance,

“to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved”.

And What did he see? The answer is in chapter 3 and verse 2:

“O Yahweh, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid.”

Continuing Those faithful ones have all

“obtained a good report through faith?” “O Yahweh, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. Eloah will come from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise” (vv. 2-3).

The prophet was rewarded with a vision of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in great power and glory, when the earth shall be full of his praise. This is the hope which is the basis of all the faithful ones in , and which is the basis of our faith which we should maintain daily today.

Brother Thomas rendered as:

“Faith is a confident anticipation of things hoped for, a full persuasion of things not seen”.

Our hope of an inheritance of the kingdom is the motivation for our faith. This was the case with Abraham as we see from verses 8-10 back in , for

“by faith Abraham, when he was called out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”

The tribes descending from Jacob and fulfilling the promise of becoming numerous and many nations, as through the ages today they are spread through the world. With only some of Levi Judah and Benjamin returning to Israel after 70 years from the captivity.

And in verses 13-16,

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city”.

Of this hope the Apostle Paul wrote:

“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it”.

So real was this hope to Abraham that he left the country of his birth and ventured into the promised land, nor would he go back to Ur of the Chaldees again and neither would he send his son Isaac back there, but directed his servant Eliezer to find a wife for his son from among his kin, ensuring that the angel would guide his servant.

Similarly we who have embraced the Truth, to have left our birth country behind, whether it is Britain, Australia, America, or wherever. We are no longer patriotic for the country of our birth but instead we seek for the city which hath foundations, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the king, which is “all our salvation and all our desire”.

Please turn to and verse 20, As In rising from the waters of baptism with Christ, we

“seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. Our citizenship therefore begins in the place where we set our affections, as it did with Abraham, who “looked for a city which hath foundations”. This is seen from ,

Brother Thomas rendered this

“Our commonwealth has a beginning in the heavens, out of which we wait for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself”

It was this hope which, was the confident anticipation of Abraham and which made him leave his native country. Likewise when he came into the promised land, even though he experienced so much trouble: famine, then strife between his herdsmen and his nephew Lot, then warfare, the battle of the kings when Abraham had to make a 300 mile journey northward to Damascus to rescue his nephew Lot.

Despite all this he never considered going back to the land of his birth, for as we read in Hebrews and chapter 11 and verse 15

“truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned”().

Similarly, although we may remain in our native country, in our hearts we should leave it, and set our affections on the Kingdom of God,

“for here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come”.

We must realise that we are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” and order our lives with this in mind.

The test will come when the angel calls us to Sinai. We must then leave everything behind and go with the angel. Never have we seen such stirring signs as we are now seeing, The world is collapsing around us, we are truly in the days like Noah and the flood. The events I described earlier should give us the clear sign that the kingdom is upon us.

Let us lift up our heads for our redemption draweth nigh. Whatever troubles we go through in our life of probation, and we have all had troubles, which should strengthen us, and we must,

“hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end”, as did Abraham.

The faithful in have been described as “the Heroes of Faith”. There are lessons to be learned from each one of them. We can Consider Moses of whom we read in verses 24 to 27:

“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible”(verses 24-27).

By Yahweh’s will, when he was taken by Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses was brought up in his early years by his mother, who would have instructed him in the promises to Abraham and the coming seed of Abraham, who was to be offered in sacrifice as was Isaac, but who would rise from the dead and inherit the promised land, and in whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.

These promises would have filled his mind as he grew up in the opulent palace of Pharaoh.

The words “the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” were possibly a title, which could have led him to eventually succeed Pharaoh. On the one hand there was the possibility of becoming the greatest monarch in the world and inheriting the riches and treasures of Egypt, and living in its luxurious palace, but he also saw that he was the one who could deliver his people Israel. As we have seen riches and power are only temporal in this world, what is eternal is Yahweh and his coming kingdom.

The 400 year period given to Abraham in was drawing to a close. There was something special about Moses when he was born, for he was described in as “a goodly child” and “exceeding fair” in and his mother may have seen a destiny for him as Hannah saw with Samuel.

Jochebed may have instilled into Moses’ mind that he could be the one who would lead his people out of Egypt. No doubt there must have been a great conflict in his mind, as there was with Abraham when he was told to offer up Isaac.

Certainly Moses could inherit the luxuries of Egypt, yet on the other hand there were the Abrahamic promises concerning his brethren, the children of Israel, who were in terrible affliction; of their inheritance of the land of promise, and of the one who was to be their Saviour and future heir of the land, in whom all nations of the world would be blessed.

We do not know when he refused the honour to be given him but it may have coincided with , that “when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel”, and then, “seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not” (vv. 24-28).

On another occasion he found two of his brethren fighting but when he intervened the wrong-doer thrust him away saying, “Who made thee a ruler and judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?

Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.” What an anticlimax for him in the mind of man, to have given his life for his people and then to be rejected! He had given up this auspicious position in Egypt for the sake of his brethren and was reproached of them. Also he had to flee from Pharaoh who sought to slay him. But this was the building of Yahweh’s plan for him, his preparation for the time to come.

How true are the words we have already read in : “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: For he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”

There was intense conflict in Moses’s mind as there is conflict in our minds: “for the flesh lusted against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” ().

We can either choose a high position in this world, or remember that we are strangers and sojourners, for here we have no continuing city, and that our inheritance of the kingdom is far more important than anything this world can offer. Again the things of this world are temporal and the things of Yahweh and his kingdom eternal.

Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of Yahweh, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. To him the ecclesia was more important than all the treasures of Egypt. And for no reward either, he was still rejected by those he was trying to save at first, but still he held steadfast until the right time given by Yahweh was upon him. To us the ecclesia should be of greater importance than the things of this world, for the ecclesia is preparing us for the kingdom and we hope to be with our brothers and sisters in the kingdom. That we may hold steadfast, even at the face of adversity, and opposition, or at our time of waiting, we should have patience and active faith to prepare us for the time of Christs return.

We should always strive to spend time one with another, helping and building each other up on our walk to the kingdom.

When our Hebrew brethren walked faithfully, their concern was for the ecclesia, for Paul declared of them:

“ye had compassion on me in my bonds”.

Concern for the welfare of the ecclesia is an underlying exhortation in this epistle, for Paul further said:

“But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things which accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (ch. 6:9-12).

Moses the great ancestor of the Jews, gave up this exalted position in Egypt to minister to the ecclesia in exile. The Apostle exhorted those who were going back to the Law, to turn from their apostasy and minister to the ecclesia.

The promises in this chapter apply to that glorious vision of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in and the fulfilment of the promises is imminent as the signs are telling us, for

“these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (vv.39-40).

The prophet Habakkuk’s message was urgent. Yahweh told him:

“Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it”.

So the Apostle Paul exhorts the latter-day Brotherhood:

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus [as did Habakkuk], the author and finisher of faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the stake, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” ().

The Master was above all “the faithful witness”. We come together as oft as we can to “consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself”. Let us not be weary and faint in our minds but run faithfully, yet not alone, but together as ecclesias, and the wider brotherhood, the race set before us. At this time the end of another year its all more important to strengthen each other, and not weaken in apathy and long waiting. Let us make every effort to be like unto him who is an example for us our king, teacher and saviour the Lord Jesus. As we now come to partake of the emblems we have before us. Of that great sacrifice made that we may by Yahweh’s will and grace and our faithfull actions gain a place in his kingdom and glorify his name forever.