Podcasts about hebrews chapter

Our Redemption (1) (audio) David Eells – 6/8/25 I want to encourage you today with a teaching on Redemption because it's so important we understand what Jesus has paid to give us, and it helps us in our faith and our spiritual growth. When we consider what God has given us through knowledge of the promises and then being tried to see if we're going to really be faithful to what they provide. We are tried to see if we will act on what the redemption provides. Let's start in 1Co 6:19-20 Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body. And some of you know that the KJV adds there, ‘and in your spirit, which are gods'.  You have nothing to do with the glorifying God in your spirit. God himself lives in your spirit. But you do have something to do, and it's a in that speaks that we should glorify God therefore in our body. This has the numeric pattern  but the added part has no numeric pattern, and it has no place in the Bible; it was added by men. He said you were bought with a price and the word bought there is agorazō and it means redeemed. You were redeemed with a price. And the word agorazō is translated in various ways in the Bible. One way is “bought”. It's translated bought because it actually means that, however, “bought” doesn't cover the whole meaning of the word agorazō or redeemed; it means to purchase a slave with an eye towards setting them free. Well, obviously from that little type and shadow, you can tell that we were all slaves. And we were slaves to sin, slaves to corruption, and slaves to the curse. We were slaves to the devil and slaves to the flesh. And redemption is all about God paying the price for us to be set free from that slavery. And so this word “bought” is the word redeemed. It's mentioned again a little further down in Chapter 7. Let's read 1Co 7:22 For he that was called in the Lord being a bondservant (or a slave), is the Lord's freedman: That's interesting. So that's a really good description of what redemption is all about. “Purchasing a slave in order to set him free.” We were a slave to the world, to the flesh, to the devil, to sin on and on and on. So, when the Lord buys you, He buys you out, and you're no longer a slave to these things. You are free in Christ! This redemption was accomplished at the cross already. It doesn't matter what you're in slavery to; whether it has to do with this world in regards to sin or the curse, or the devil, or anything else, the Lord set you free! That's what redemption was all about. He already accomplished this redemption. And of course, if you apply faith to this, it is the solution and he goes on to say in this text …likewise he that was called being free, is Christ's bondservant. Meaning, you were free in regard to righteousness. You were free in regard to serving God. You were free in regard to walking in the spirit, but now you're a slave to Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul called himself a slave to Jesus Christ. We are called to serve Him, and as we know, obedience to His word is how we build this house upon the Rock. Everything else is going to get wiped out. Every Christian who hears His Words and disobeys them is building his house on the shifting sands of man's ideas, and it just won't last, because everything that can be shaken is about to be shaken. It's all going to get wiped out. You know, there are so many churches out there that put no premium on obedience. But the Lord saved us so we could obey. In fact, they think for some reason that's works. And of course, it's the work of God. Obedience to Him is the work of God. I mean, we are walking in the steps of Jesus, and He gave us those commands so we could follow in His steps, and He redeemed us so we would have the ability to walk in His steps. And verse 23 says 1Co 7:23 Ye were bought with a price; become not bondservants of men. There's the same word agorazō also, and it means we've been delivered from slavery now. … become not bondservants of men. Does this still happen? Of course, there are many Christians who are bondservants of men. They won't obey the Word, because men told them they didn't have to, or men gave them convenient doctrines so they didn't have to obey. So this redemption is the price that has been paid. We can look in Hebrews Chapter 9 and see that the price has been paid by Jesus Christ. And it is paid through His blood. Let's read that. Heb 9:11 But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, 12 nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. Now this word redemption comes from the Greek word lutrōsis. There's also a word apolutrōsis, which is a strengthened form of lutrōsis, and it's slightly different, but it has a really neat meaning. It means “the release on receipt of a ransom.” Well, you say, a ransom; we had to be ransomed? Yes, the devil was holding us captive legally, because of our sins. Why is that? Because God made statements all through the Bible, and the Bible says God cannot lie, and the devil holds Him to that. It's not that God wants to lie, He can't, but the devil holds Him to what He says. The Bible says, when you do such and such a sin, this is going to happen to you. This is the penalty that you pay for. Then God has spoken a legal word there that the devil will hold it up in His face. And so we had all these penalties stacked up against us for our sins. And we were being held ransom, and the Lord paid the ransom in full. He paid the price for us to be set free from the penalty for our sins. And you know, the devil loves to make sure that we pay the penalty for our sins. But the great thing is, the Lord ransomed us; He delivered us out of the power of darkness. So as we read on here, we'll see this. I'm going to back up just a little bit so you can catch this word, redemption again, verse 12 nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh: 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? This is awesome! You know you can actually walk without sin and walk without a consciousness of sin. You couldn't do that under the law. You had to keep searching out these rules and regulations and see where you did this wrong and did that wrong. But God redeemed us from the law too. And that's what the scripture says, and we'll look at that. So look, He cleanses your conscience from dead works. You are able to have fellowship with God because you don't have a consciousness of sin. But you know, even if you do sin, you go to Him as it says in 1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And you believe the Word of God, so you know you're cleansed and you know you can have fellowship with God. So in that way, God has given us a covering and He has redeemed us. And in this case, lutrōsis; meaning, God has released us on receipt of the ransom. Jesus paid the ransom with His blood. Praise God! And Galatians chapter 4:4-5 is just awesome, like all the rest of God's words; Don't you love God's Word? Gal 4:4 but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So redemption has also provided for us adoption. We are adopted sons of God, and it also set us free from the law, or here, it set the Galatians free from the law. And you know, we don't have to go back under the law because the law was made with the Jews; it wasn't made with the Gentiles. He made the New Covenant with the Gentiles. But to know that you're not under that law is awesome because the law itself is a curse, and you can't convince a lot of people of that because they love self-righteousness. Because the righteousness that comes from the law is self-righteousness. It says, “Look what I'm doing.” “I can do this and I can do that, therefore I'm holy.” No, you're only holy because of what Jesus did when He bought you at the cross. But He says in Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. So if you want to be justified by the law, you've got to keep them all, and nobody's ever been able to do it. First of all, you would have to be a pretty sharp lawyer and you have to have an awfully good memory to remember all those rules and regulations. Thank God we don't have to live like that! Saints, we can live freely by trusting in what Jesus did as far as paying that penalty, and verse 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. That is the penalty for being contrary to the law. He redeemed us. Now this is the word exagorazō is a strengthened form of Agorazo, and it means, to buy out a slave with an eye to set him free. Exagorazō is translated redeemed. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. That is the penalty for not keeping the law and here is what God did about it. …having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Are you in Christ Jesus? We've talked about that; are you abiding in Jesus Christ through faith in His shed blood? Well, then you're not under the law, and that's great, because if you go back and read Deuteronomy 28 and you look at the penalties for breaking the law, these are the curses that are upon the whole world. All over the world, this curse is upon mankind, and actually the only way you can come out from under that is to exercise faith in the redemption that Jesus accomplished. This is an awesome thing, Saints! Now look, you can't get out from under a curse if you're walking in willful disobedience. There's nothing you can do about the curse because there's no sacrifice for a person who walks in willful disobedience as it says in Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. In other words, if you're willfully rebellious, you need a whipping, and God will give it to you. But if you're not willfully in rebellion and you're walking by faith in Christ, then He's got a blood covering, and He has redeemed you from the curse that comes from breaking all that law. Praise God that we're under grace and not under the law! And if you, as a Christian, go back under the law, then He tells you in Gal 4:30 Howbeit what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. That is, you don't inherit the same blessings, the same eternal life, and everything that goes with that. And Gal 5:1 For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Speaking about going under certain parts of the law, and keeping the Feasts, somebody asked me, “Do we have to keep these Feasts?” No, they're a parable, and we do have to fulfill the feasts. For instance, we keep the Feast of the Passover by eating the Lamb, Jesus Christ and the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 5 that our Passover has already been sacrificed. It's all over. All you need to do is eat the Lamb now. And no, it doesn't make any difference whether you eat physical lamb or not. It means you have to eat the Word of God who is Jesus the Lamb of God. So we're told here in Gal 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, or you can add these other things in there too; all these commands of the law, such as the tithe, the Sabbath, and so forth, we have to fulfill those. These are spiritual types, and they're fulfilled spiritually. But if you go back under the law, you are going to be separated from Christ. He continues to say, Christ will profit you nothing. That's if you go back under these laws in the letter. 3 Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are righteous by faith in your redemption and cannot be justified by keeping the law. See if you break the law in just one point, you are a sinner. If you just break it in one point, you have broken the law. Now you are a sinner and now you cannot go to heaven. Do you understand that? So no matter what you do, you must have a redemption, and that's been accomplished by the Lord if you won't seek to be self-justified by keeping some work of the law so you can say, “Hey, I made it! I've attained to it”. No, it won't work. It's a stench in God's nostrils. Again, Paul says, 3 Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. You're not seeking it by grace, you're seeking it by works and it won't work. God won't accept it, and you'll find nothing but failure in your life if you try it. Now let's go to Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; (There's that obedience to the teaching, building your house on the Rock.) whereunto ye were delivered; You were servants of sin. The word there is bondservants. You were a slave; you were a slave to sin. But you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered and being made free from sin. This is the redemption right here. 18 And being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness. So now you are a servant of righteousness. You're a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith will give you power from God by grace, which is unmerited favor. Now let's go down to verse 22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. Notice that not everybody who says unto the Lord, “Lord, Lord”, is going to have eternal life. It's those who are being made free from sin. They're bearing the fruit of their redemption that was given to them in Christ. When you walk by faith in Jesus, He's going to set you free. He is going to fulfill the redemption in you. You're going to be set free. There's no two ways about it. If it's not faith, it won't work. But if it is faith in Christ, it will work. Faith has fruit, right? And another good example is in Psa 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; For he will receive me. Now here He's talking only about of redemption of the soul from the power of death. He's not talking about the body, but it says “he will receive me”. The Lord receives all of those who die in Christ. And He has redeemed their soul. That means He has bought their soul from the penalty of the curse. They will be in the rapture or resurrection. Both of these fulfill the redemption that Jesus spoke about the deliverance from the curse. And Psa 56:13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: Hast thou not delivered my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living? Psa 25:22 Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all of his troubles. That sounds good, doesn't it? That kind of covers an awful lot, doesn't it? I like these kinds of promises. The Lord is going to redeem us from all of our troubles. How does He do that? Well, we believe that He bought us as slaves, as we were in the beginning; we were slaves to sin, slaves to the curse, slaves to the devil, and slaves to the flesh. He bought us out of all of our troubles from the curse that stems from that. But He redeemed us from all of our troubles. And Psa 130:8 And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities. Now, the way He's speaking of Israel here, He's speaking of Israel the man, but also Israel, the body. He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Do we really want that? Obviously, we do have a part to play here. If we do confess our sins, we're forgiven and cleansed. If we justify our sins, we don't have any of this and there's nothing promised to us. But if we confess our sins, He says He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of unrighteousness. (1Jn1:9) But He wants to deliver us from all iniquity. He wants to redeem us from being a slave to iniquities or to sin. In other words, He accomplished this at the cross. We have been redeemed at the cross, but there is also a manifestation of that redemption when we walk by faith in it. Do you really believe that the Lord took away all of your sins, all of your iniquities? Do you really believe that? How about the ones you're doing right now? You know the ones you're failing in right now; the Lord redeemed you from that. He bought you as a slave to sin, in order to set you free from all that. That's His plan and that's what He's going to do. Now let's look at Tit 2:11-14 For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men,… Well, that's not quite right. You know why? Because in Greek, you can get some words in front of others rather easily, and there is a perfect sequence here according to the Numerics. And what this verse actually says is, …he hath appeared to all men bringing salvation. He didn't appear, bringing salvation to all men, because then all men would have salvation, but he did appear to all men bringing salvation. That's not to say that every one of them accepts it, or can they accept it because they can't. Only those who have a gift of faith and repentance can accept it. So in other words, He's offered it and the people who can partake of it are the people who have that gift of repentance and faith. Tit 2:12 instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; Wow! So we can really live godly or godlike. He's making a statement here that I would say most of Christianity doesn't consider possible. According to these people, “We're always going to be sinners saved by grace”, but that's not according to God's plan and not according to His redemption. His redemption has no power in the minds of these people; it has no power to save. He redeemed us! He bought us as slaves and He paid the price. He paid the ransom so that we could be set free from bondage to the devil and the curse! And His purpose was so that we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. Not in the next world; in this present world. Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; You know it's Christ in you, the hope of glory, (Col.1:27). So we're looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory. Where is this ‘appearing of the glory'? Well, the word there appearing is the word epiphania, and it means “a shining forth, or upon, to shine forth, the shining forth” of the glory out of God's people is what he's talking about. So we're looking for this epiphany of the glory of the great God in our savior Jesus Christ; 14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, Praise the Lord! What replaces “all iniquity”? The glory of God! Iniquity is your old nature, the nature of the old man, and the glory is the nature of the new man, Jesus Christ; Christ in you, the hope of glory. So, you looking for the epiphany of Jesus shining in you and from you. This is a result of the redemption that He has worked for you. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. And I guess some people think that God is rather foolish, that He makes a promise that He never really plans to bring to pass. That's ridiculous. He is speaking the truth here about His plan for Christians. This is the truth and what you've heard about people being “a sinner saved by grace the rest of their life” is a lie. That's an “Antichrist gospel.” This is the “Christ Gospel” here; that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works. How about that? In other words, the people who are redeemed will be zealous of good works. They're going to love to do the works of Jesus. And no, they're not working their way to heaven. This is the fruit of their redemption. Our faith in this redemption has good works, right? This is what people who are redeemed look like. They love good works and they love to walk in righteousness. Just like it's a sport for a fool to do wrong, it's a sport for God's people to do right. They love to do right. They love to be pleasing unto God. They love the feeling they get when they're pleasing unto God. They desire to please their Father as they serve Him in His kingdom. They're not trying to earn their way to heaven. The Lord already did that. They just love to be obedient, and they love to hear the Words of God and act on those Words to build their house on the solid Rock of Jesus Christ. So His redemption was so that we would be delivered of all iniquity and if you believe it, God is big enough to do it. It's not as though we have to do it, He's already done it. And we're just believing Him. Praise God! That's the Good News! Praise God! Thank you, Father! Thank you, Jesus, for what You've done for us in delivering us and giving us your glory. And I think a good example of this is Genesis 48, where we read how Jacob is blessing Joseph and his sons. In verse Gen 48:16 the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them,... Think about all the stuff that Jacob went through with Laban; who plundered him and was trying to rip him off. And how he kept changing his wages time after time. Then later, when Jacob saw Esau, he was so worried. He was thinking that he was going to wipe him and his whole family out when he saw all the abundance he had gained when he had gone and worked for Leban. And just think about what he said, the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads… Have we been redeemed from all evil? Yes, absolutely. We are like Jacob; we were all like a supplanter. We were unsavory, really, to say the least, but he was shown the salvation of God. He was the Israel of God, and Israel means, “he shall rule as God.” Isn't that neat? He went from Jacob to Israel. “He shall rule as God” because God lives in the person who is redeemed. And He does His works through the person who is redeemed. And we are the body of Christ, Who is God. So God lives in us, and He can do His will in a person who has a renewed mind and has been redeemed from the curse. We can praise the Lord for His great plan. Now, let's go to 1Pe 1:15 but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; 16 because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy. Now, if we are His seed through the Word in us we are to be holy too. That is, if the Word is being manifested in us, we also should be holy. Verse 17 And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear: 18 knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers… Let's go back and look at verse 15, he says, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; So we were redeemed from that vain manner of life that was handed down from our fathers. A worthless and useless life. You can see how the world acts; there's no real eternal value in things that people think and do. The Lord is very practical; if we follow Him as disciples, we're going to be very practical too, because the things we are doing will be most valuable in that they have an eternal result. Now we're here for a very good purpose that ends up in eternal life and perfect holiness, which is separation from the world unto God. And yet we know there are a lot of fruitless things people do. For one thing, they don't redeem the time. They don't act like we have only a certain amount of time here to bear the fruit of Jesus Christ. We're running against the clock here; there is a race going on, as the apostle Paul said, and so he buffeted his body, and he brought it under submission as he served God. He was a bondservant of the Lord. He was a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is quite a happy thing to be! As a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, you receive fruit and have the joy and the peace of serving Him. So again, you're redeemed from a vain manner of life, that is, a fruitless life. It's a life of just pleasing “self”. It's a life that really doesn't have any eternal reward. You remember the things that you used to do in the world just to please yourself, to entertain yourself, to make yourself happy and to keep your mind occupied with things that have no reward. Perhaps you're caught up in sports or caught up in fishing. Now I'm not making a law that you can't do this. But I'm trying to make a point here that if these things aren't an end in themselves, and they're a big habit and distract you from serving the Lord, then you probably need to break them because there are so many more important things to do. Yeah, and a lot of this “vain manner of life” is a life that has no eternal foundation, and you receive no eternal reward for it. If you look at the life of the disciples, the apostles, and Jesus, you will see a self-sacrificial life, not a life of materialism and pleasing “self”. They lived lives of sacrifice joyfully for others. This was anything but a “vain manner of life.” Most people live, whether in peace and prosperity or not, a “vain manner of life,” given over to the corruption of the world. They strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel (Mat.23:24), making little things big and big things little. The truly important things are not important to them. Going on in verse 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb without spot, even the blood of Christ: So we were redeemed with something that is totally and perfectly valuable. And what God is saying is, don't waste it. The Lord has redeemed us from a fruitless life, a worthless life which is quite common even for many Christians. You know, they ‘accept Jesus as a personal Savior' and then they carry on with their vain life ignoring the Great Commission that was so important to Jesus. Their life doesn't reflect being a bondservant of the Lord, serving Him in the important things. Look at Psa 106:10 And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; There was not one of them left. So, you can see here that the enemy that He has redeemed us from is the old man of the flesh that went down in the waters of the Red Sea representing our baptism. We are redeemed from the flesh and the demons that use it, and the people who make themselves our enemy. How we hate serving the flesh when we would really enjoy serving God. Well, He redeemed us out of the hand of the old man when we went down in baptism. And guess what? That old man doesn't exist anymore. You were crucified with Christ, and now the One Who lives in you is Jesus Christ. The new man is the only one left. Gal 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.  Now, there's no doubt you can use Psa 106:10-11 and apply it to our spiritual enemies who use the old man; the principalities and powers and the rulers of darkness, or even the physical enemies that are used by the devil to tempt us, and to try to bring us back into bondage to fleshly principles. There's no doubt you can use this verse to mean that too. And Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of Jehovah say [so], Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the adversary, Sometimes we lose track, or we forget to claim this redemption from the adversary. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! We need to confess our redemption. We need to confess it before men. We need to confess it before the principalities and powers, otherwise they're going to take total advantage of you. We were redeemed from all of our enemies! We were set free! We need to confess that we have all of Christ. He was given to us as a gift. He now lives in us and we no longer live as in Galatians 2:20. And the devil takes on flesh sometimes. He's not just a spirit, he takes on the flesh of people around us to persecute us and to try us in our faith, and to try to drag us back into the world and do the things of the world. But the Lord has redeemed us from all of our enemies, spiritual and physical; He has set us free! (Psa.107:2) Let the redeemed of the Lord say [so]…. When we get into a situation involving a curse (something which most of Christianity considers to be quite normal), we know that the normal Christian life is a life delivered from the power of the curse of sin. The Gospel says that the Lord paid for our sins, we've been forgiven; therefore, we are no longer under the curse. Jesus bore that curse for us. We're not supposed to bear it, and it doesn't please the Father that we bear it, yet we will bear it, if we do not confess our redemption. Gal 3:13  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:  Gal 3:14  that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Now let's go to Luke chapter 1. One of my favorite verses is so encouraging, where he speaks about our redemption. Verse 68 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; For he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people, It's a past tense thing; it's already accomplished. You don't even have to talk God into it, and you don't have to beg Him. He's already redeemed you from the enemy, whether it's the flesh, whether it's the devil, or whether it's sin, it makes no difference. He's redeemed you from all of your enemies, and He goes on to say, 69 And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of his servant David. This is primarily Jesus Christ. And 70 (As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old), 71 Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; Redemption brings salvation from our enemies. We're saved from our enemies already. 72 To show mercy towards our fathers, And to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware unto Abraham our father, 74 To grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies Should serve him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before him all our days. So we're redeemed so that we can have a good life. Jesus said in Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. We can serve Him without fear of our enemies because of our redemption. This is what God paid for! Oh, glory to God! Now, let's go to Hos 13:11 I have given thee a king in mine anger, and have taken him away in my wrath. 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store. God is holding something against Ephraim here. I've shared before that the Lord showed me that Ephraim is a type of the church because Ephraim was the second-born son of Joseph, whom Israel laid his right hand upon to impart the double portion inheritance. And Ephraim was called “the fullness of nations,” so Ephraim represents the church, and the church is in big trouble right now. That is, the overwhelming majority of the church are going on about their business, just like they're serving God and they're not. And they don't even know what Christianity is all about. But God is going to show mercy in these days. 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store. In other words, you don't want to reap what Ephraim has sown. You know what the church has sown; if they reap it, they're in big trouble. Well, the thing is, the Lord's going to reap it. Verse 13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: (You recognize that from Revelation 12?) … he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of children. In other words, they should have already been bearing fruit, but instead they've had a fruitless life, and they've already come up to the tribulation period, and the Man-child is born, and thank God for that, because the Man-child reformer ministries are going to lead them through the wilderness to learn faith. And he says in verse 14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; You've heard about their covenant with death, that God said He was going to break their covenant with death? So much of the church has a covenant with death because they're in agreement with something besides God. They've made covenants, but it's the wrong covenant and it's not under the Lord. But He says I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death: O death, where are thy plagues? O Sheol, where is thy destruction? repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. So the Lord is not going to change His mind. He is going to redeem His people. He is going to lead that woman through the wilderness and He's going to bear fruit through them. They are going to bring forth fruit in the days ahead and that is wonderful news! Oh, thank You, Father. And Psalm 103:3 and 4. You probably know it by heart. Psa 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; The Lord's benefits are obviously His method of redeeming our life from destruction. God will bring to pass this redemption in our lives! This is great news! And another one of my favorite texts is in Isa 35:8-10 And a highway shall be there, (He's talking about a highway through the wilderness in verse 6, the Tribulation that's coming upon us.) and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but is shall be for the redeemed: the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein. 9 No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon (God is showing us here that the only safe way to avoid the beast and fools is to walk in holiness to Zion. Holiness means separation from the world unto God.); they shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: 10 and the ransomed (That is, those who believe their debt has been paid so that they can be free of their captors so..) The ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; This reminds you of Ephraim. God's mercy that He gave to Ephraim so that they could find this redemption. They didn't find it in religion, and now they're facing the tribulation. And it won't be as they thought and hoped, because they didn't fly away in the rapture. So basically, God is going to have mercy. Well, I'm not saying some of them won't fall away because the Bible says that many will fall away. But the Lord is going to have mercy upon His true Church, His “called out ones.”) and the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. More good news! Hallelujah! Let me go on with some more scriptures of our redemption in Christ. (Col.1:14) In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. The word “redemption” as we've seen, means “a release on payment of a ransom.” We owed a debt we couldn't pay, and Jesus paid a debt He didn't owe. A ransom is a price that is paid to release someone who is in bondage. We've been in bondage to the curse, the old man, the devil, the world, sickness and all the bad things that go along with the curse. Yet, Jesus paid the price to set us free; He paid a ransom so the devil would no longer have authority over us because we have the forgiveness of our sins. Praise God! Eph 1:5 having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: (Notice our grace is in Christ, where we are to abide by faith in the blood.) 7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: 13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,--in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, (All should be sealed by receiving the Holy Spirit) 14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of the eternal Spirit filled life. God will redeem from earth those who have born His fruit. Eph 4:30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. Pro 23:10-11 Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless: 11 For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against thee. Those who remove the boundaries will be judged. Isa 43:14-17 Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: (The true Church, the Israel of God.) For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. (He is doing it.) 15 I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. 16 Thus saith Jehovah, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; 17 who bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched as a wick): (DS Babylon) Isa 44:21-28 Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. 22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. 23 Sing, O ye heavens, for Jehovah hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel. 24 Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb: I am Jehovah, that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth (who is with me?). 25 that frustrateth the signs of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; 26 that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and I will raise up the waste places thereof; 27 that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers; 28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. (I was told our Cyrus would be Trump before he became president the first time. He is helping to restore the people of God's Kingdom at the expense of DS Babylon just as Cyrus did. He discovered the hidden treasures of darkness just as Cyrus did.) Isa 59:14-21 And justice is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth is lacking; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. (A good description of the rule of DS Babylon.) And Jehovah saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. 16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it upheld him. 17 And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. 18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense. (Yes, He has brought down these Edomites.) 19 So shall they fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of Jehovah driveth. 20 And a Redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, (His redemption is moving among His Man-child reformers and His Bride.) saith Jehovah. 21 And as for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah: my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever. (The Word will go forth from these reformers.) Mic 4:6 In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted; 7 and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and Jehovah will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever. 8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come, (The spiritual Bride city and her David Man-childs will be redeemed.)  the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. 9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee, is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail? (With the Man-child ministries of Rev.12.)  10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. (And it will be so.) Luk 21:28 But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh. Now I'd like to share a few testimonies from our site about how God is faithful to answer whatever need we may have because of the redeeming work of Christ.     A Leap of Faith Peter - 10/03/2009 For the past couple of months, I have been weighed down by many things. Through ignorance and confusion, I had neglected a lot of matters that I believe the Lord was placing in my heart. Of primary concern, one of these matters was unconfessed willful sin that I had committed at the end of July; the confusion and my passivity held me in bondage to much reasoning. For months, the conviction lingered in the background and refused to subside. I didn't know how to deal with it; praying and reading dwindled tremendously. I was depressed and discouraged to the point where I began to think I was reprobated. However, I still had the unquenchable desire to serve the Lord. After speaking with a couple of brethren and listening to some UBM teachings on authority and dealing with the cause, I came to the conclusion that the conviction in my heart was coming from the Spirit. On September 30th, I confessed my sin to the Lord and to some brethren. On that same day, I saw the Lord's “unbelievable” grace and mercy upon my grandmother and me. While listening to the Bible study, I was interrupted by my grandmother's cry for help. She had her hands clenched against her chest, trying to bear an extremely sharp, throbbing pain (the pain was coming from the right side of her stomach). The pain had travelled to the right side of her face and head, causing a lack of sensation or numbness. At this point, I didn't “feel” any power or authority to command a healing upon her. Thoughts of condemnation, for my forgiven willful sin, flooded my mind. Yet, all I could rely on was God and His Word; it's all I knew. I remember what I had recently learned about authority over the curse and demons. Having reminded my grandmother about the Gospel, I laid my hands on her chest and thanked God for forgiving me for my unconfessed sin earlier in the day. I confessed the good report and reminded my grandmother of Philippians 4:4-8 and Mark 11:24. (Php.4:4) Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice (5) Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. (6) In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (7) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. (8) Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Mar.11:24) Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. After commanding the pain to leave, I continued to praise and thank the Lord for His grace, coming against doubtful and fearful thoughts. I eventually reached a point of complete boldness. Only a few minutes later, the pain left. God is faithful and His Word is always true. All the glory to Him! I would like to mention that my grandmother has been disturbed by arthritis pain, a few times, in the middle of the night. She has called out to the Lord and every time she's been comforted.     From Death to Life Gary and Robin Florence 11/2/23 I wanted to share with you a power of prayer story. On August 3, 2022, my wife, Robin, suffered a brain aneurysm, while in the ER she fell into a coma and was flown by helicopter 62 miles away. As I was driving there I received a phone call that said, “We are in a fatal situation and are doing everything we can to keep your wife alive on the OR table.” I still had about a 45-minute drive, when something, or should I say someone (Holy Spirit) rose up on the inside of me and this authority came over me and I said out loud, “In the name of Jesus I command the spirit of death to leave that OR room now.” Through prayer and the grace of God my wife survived. The surgeon said they go by a severity chart of 1-5 with 5 being the most severe. He said your wife was at the top of a 5. The next day one of the team members came in and said, “That lady should not be lying there, it was that bad. It truly is a miracle.” She spent the next 42 days in hospitals, 23 in ICU, on and off life support, in and out of comas. I did not sit at my wife's bedside begging, pleading and making deals with God. I sat as a son co-laboring, partnering with my Father, calling those things that be not as if they are. I watched with my own eyes, my wife go from death to life. I saw miracle after miracle take place in her body. I watched all the “But God” moments, the “suddenly of God” take place in her throughout her journey. November 7th she went back to work part-time and even drove herself and then on December 1st she went back full-time. I am so proud of my wife. She never bellyached, ‘Woe is me', or ‘Why did God allow this to happen to me?' Her faith grew stronger and became more resolved. Not only is she my wife and companion but she is my best friend, and I am honored to be her husband. So we know the power of prayer. Thank you for reading this email; may it encourage everyone and lift you and stir your faith to believe in the supernatural interventions of God. Also the 700 Club did a taping that aired 7/14/2023. She had a follow-up visit with her surgeon in May and he said as bad as she was, the death rate is 90%, and in most cases, he is transitioning the individual from life to death, basically making them as comfortable as he can till they pass. He said in Robin's case it was nothing short of miraculous.     Jesus Heals the Mute I am writing to share the story that eventually led to this wonderful testimony for my son, Romeo. The backstory: Romeo had been showing “signs” of autism from around 18 months of age. He had essentially regressed in his speech, and all the words he had learnt, he slowly stopped speaking. Romeo had no understanding of social cues, was not responding to his name and from the frustration of being unable to communicate, was throwing a multitude of tantrums throughout the day. When I first noticed the speech regression, I contacted speech therapists and was quoted an awful amount of money to start him so that he could catch up and decided I would wait it out to allow him time to do his own thing. But not too long after, my close friends and in-laws began to notice and began to observe him and make comments regarding his inability to speak. Calling him a mute etc. On the same day I had spoken to my sister-in-law who had been “observing” my son since he was only sixteen months old. I received a call back from a speech therapist whom I had left a message for weeks prior. Her prices were much cheaper, and she had availability, she was very close to home, and could start Romeo immediately. I took up the opportunity, and he began his speech therapy, which he loves! In the interim, Romeo was going back and forth with hearing tests for fluid that was building up and clearing constantly for a few months straight, which was inhibiting him from hearing properly. We made the decision to book him in to have grommets inserted to clear the fluid. The date was set for 19 November 2024. On to the good news! Eventually, my husband and I decided to go down the path of obtaining a diagnosis, where Romeo received a diagnosis of level 2 Autism Spectrum Disorder, requiring “substantial support” (weekly speech therapy and occupational therapy to catch up). The night we received the diagnosis, I woke around 2:00 am to feed my baby girl, Grace and felt very strongly that the Holy Spirit was prompting me to find stories in the New Testament regarding deliverances. I spent an hour reading up on the stories where Jesus removed demons who made people mute (Mark 9:14-29 and Luke 11:14), scripture where Paul had cast out a demon (Acts 16:18), scripture about being unable to cast out a demon, where Jesus advised the disciples the demon could only be cast out by prayer and fasting (Mark 9:28-29), and also the story of where the disciples were trying to stop a person who was not in the group from casting down spirits, but Jesus advised them to leave the man alone etc. (Mark 9:38-41). After reading, I prayed, and I immediately fell into a deep sleep where the Lord gave me a prophetic dream. In the dream, it was Romeo and I looking directly into each other's eyes. I could see that behind his eyes, there was something that was not entirely him. He had been spiritually oppressed by a demon. I immediately quoted Paul and said to my son, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out!” In that moment, my son, for the first time in his life, spoke a full sentence. He said, “Mummy can you help me? There is ringing in my ears!” I knew there was more to do to help my son, and the Lord woke me from my sleep. I called my mum, Josie, after I had woken to tell her of what the Lord had shown me through the scriptures and the dream. Mum said the best thing to do was to have elders David and Michael deliver Romeo, and praise the Lord, we booked the deliverance date, which occurred around early to mid-October 2024. From there, we all stood in faith for the miracle waiting to happen. A reversal of this diagnosis. A son who was no longer mute. At the end of October/start of November, I came across a video on Instagram from a prophetess that really stuck out to me. She was discussing a 25-day fast she was doing with the ministry to remove bloodline curses, and discussed the scripture I had read about where Jesus advised that particular demons could only come out through prayer and fasting. I immediately decided to join this fast and speak to my husband about it. My husband, who is yet to commit himself fully to God, instantly agreed and stuck out the fast in its entirety (6:00 am to 3:00 pm, no food, only water, for 25 days). We began this fast on 2 November 2024. From here, it felt like everything had kicked into gear. My son began saying a few words here and there, and he began responding to his name more, and his tantrums were reducing. Here it was! Our miracle made manifest! Praise the Lord for the process!! We did decide to go ahead with the grommet insertion, which was based on my husband's decision from hearing about my dream where Romeo had said, “Mummy can you help me? There is ringing in my ears!” Romeo is saying not only one word, but up to three or four words at a time. He is responding at all times to his name. He can hear and he can speak! Before he would just stare at people, but now, even if he doesn't have the right words, he will babble nonstop. He is ALWAYS speaking, even if it doesn't make sense to us. No one will be able to call this boy of ours a mute again. He outspeaks even my niece, of the sister-in-law who made the comments regarding his development. Romeo has excelled exceptionally, and we know it will only get better from here. We stand in faith and in gratitude. Romeo is the head, and not the tail. He is ahead and never behind, in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord! Thank you for your faith and encouragement. We are grateful that where we fail, we have committed elders and a faithful God to help us along the way. Our family is very grateful.     Our Heart's Desires Doris Zambrano - April 2007 I had been telling my daughters that we were so blessed indeed, as we all had been noticing that our prayers were being answered recently, often times with just a thought and not actually praying and making a formal request to our wonderful Father. We were just so awestruck and happy that He was so faithful and loved us so much. These prayers were often just little thoughts but big in our hearts. As I was fellowshipping with the brethren in the UBBS room on Paltalk (Paltalk was an interactive platform we used at that time for the brethren to join the UBBS “live”) after communion on a Sunday in April, I felt saddened that I would not be able to spend as much time as I would like with my sisters and brothers. I look forward to communion on Sundays and to spending time with everyone in fellowship! I had so much to do since I have 3 acres of grass, with only a regular lawn mower to mow, and much glorious rain had made tall, beautiful grass everywhere. I knew that if I did not get it done that weekend, it would be even harder with the rain forecast for the whole next six days. As I walked away from the computer for a drink, I thought, “Father, do angels mow grass?” Well, I just smiled and went on about fellowshipping for a bit. Not 30 minutes passed, and I heard a knock on my door, which does not seem so strange except that my 16 acres sat 6 miles from one town and 11 from the other, and there standing at my door were three boys. I opened the door and the tallest one asked, “Would you want us to mow your grass?” “YES!” I exclaimed. I hired them on the spot. Offering praise to our wonderful Father, I ran back to my computer to tell the brethren of this awesome miracle! Everyone joined me in praising our Lord, who loves us so much that He would make a way for us to spend time with one another, just because it was a desire of the heart! YAY! I praise you, Abba, thank you soooooo much! Amen!

We learn in Hebrews Chapter 7 about the weakness of the Levitical priesthood and how a new High Priest was established in the order of Melchizedek. Through the line of Judah, Jesus became the better covenant according to the power of endless life. His priesthood is unchanging and forever.

 "Drawing Near by the Blood of Christ" is the 11th episode of Craig Ford's series through the book of Hebrews.        May 25, 2025

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 "Jesus' Better Ministry" Brought to you by Craig Ford, episode 10 covers the 8th chapter of Hebrews.May 18th, 2025

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In this thoughtful discussion, we explore Hebrews chapters 7 and 8, examining why Melchizedek is mentioned and what it teaches us about Christ's priesthood and biblical theology. Addressing key themes, we encourage all believers to dig into Scripture for themselves. Join us for a clear, concise conversation that reflects on these powerful chapters.

In this episode a quote from Joseph Campbell,  "When you realize that eternity is right here now, that it is within your possibility to experience the eternity of your own truth and being, then you grasp the following: That which you are was never born and will never die." , "NTI" Hebrews Chapter 1 & 2 and "Thought of Awakening" #133 & 134 were contemplated.

In Hebrews Chapter 1, we find a powerful and compelling description of Jesus—“the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being.” God Himself speaks, revealing the divine nature and supremacy of His Son. Today, Pastor Jack Morris shares how that same radiance can shine through us when we draw close to Christ. As we live in fellowship with Him and are filled with the Holy Spirit, we begin to reflect His character, His love, and His light. Join us as we explore how to live in a way that mirrors the beauty and glory of Jesus in our everyday lives. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1528/29

One of the most beautiful truths in the Bible is that Jesus is ONE OF US! We have a man that has overcome, a MAN that represents us before the Father, the overcoming MAN Christ Jesus!

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Resilient Faith - The Book of Hebrews - Chapter 13

I've been doing a 5 minute a day bible study through the book of Hebrews on my Whatsapp group. This is the first few recordings through chapter 1. I hope it's as much of a blessing to you as it is to me!

Resilient Faith - The Book of Hebrews - Chapter 12 - Pt 2

In Hebrews Chapter 3 we'll see great reminders about Jesus' superiority and some strong warnings about keeping the faith. Then, we'll examine the dangers of unbelief and learn about God's rest, including how new covenant believers enter it.

Christians are always talking about faith. My faith walk. Faith this, faith that. So what is faith? Not the theory? But what does it look like when you live it? The sort of faith that pleases God.   What Is Faith? It's really quite amazing, but over a thousand weekly editions of this program, Christianityworks, have gone to air since it launched way back in 2004.  It's been quite a walk of faith with all the obstacles that we've faced along the way and so today on the program we're kicking off a series of messages called, “Having the Sort of Faith that Conquers the World”. These two words “By faith” appear over and over again in the Bible. And in fact, if we go to the New Testament book of Hebrews, we'll see that's pretty much the place where they're most densely packed together. By Faith. Now faith, it's something that Christians talk about a lot – our faith walk, faith this, faith that. But what is faith? When and where do we need faith? How do we get it? It's something that Jesus talked a lot about so let me ask this, do we really understand what faith is? Do we really know what the outcome of faith is meant to look like in our lives? They're the questions that we're going to be pondering and exploring and journeying through together over these next few weeks on the program starting with today. Okay then, so what exactly is faith? Well I suppose that many of the people listening today perhaps you're one of them, would point me to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 to answer that question, it says that: Faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen. Well and good, that's the most concise definition of faith in the bible, that's the stock standard definition, tickity-boo, who needs a series on faith? We know what it is: it's the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. But as much as we Christians quote that verse and its one of the most quoted Bible verses of all, do we really understand the context in which it was written? Let's look at it again, it says exactly: Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So what's that word "now" doing at the front of the verse? What's that all about? Well, that word is called a conjunctive, in other words, it ties this verse to what came immediately before. Ah, so this verse doesn't stand alone, there is a context, something that comes before that we need to get in order to really understand the verse. So, what comes before? Well, here it is, the previous chapter, Hebrews chapter 10 and we'll kick it off just at verse 26. Listen carefully because we're going to unpack this in a moment. Hebrews chapter 10, starting at verse 26: For if we wilfully persist in sin, after having received the knowledge of the truth, then no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the advocacies. Anyone who has violated the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witness. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the Blood of the Covenant by which they were sanctified and outraged the spirit of grace? For we know the one that who said ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay' and again ‘The Lord will judge his people'. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  But recall those early days when after you'd be enlightened you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution. And sometimes partners with those so treated. For you have compassion for those in prison and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions knowing that you yourselves possess something better and more lasting. Do not therefore abandon that confidence of yours, it brings a great reward. For you needed endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised for yet in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back but we're not amongst those who shrink back or are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved. Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So what's the context? The context is two things, the punishment that will surely come if we reject God's grace and mercy and continue on in sin and the second part is about the extreme trials that we're bound to face in life. In fact the Hebrew believers, the ones who were reading this letter, were facing incredible trials! They were being persecuted like you wouldn't believe. And so the writer of this letter was saying, you know something, you're going to struggle with sin, and you're going to face incredible trials and so what you need, what you really need to get you through, is faith. To tell you the truth if you put it like that I'd frankly rather be in a situation where I didn't need any faith, because faith is what we need when we're battling sin. Faith is what we need when we're in a dangerous uncertain place. Faith is what we need to be saved from something we can't save ourselves from. To persevere through situations and ordeals to make it out to the other side of something we'd rather not be in the middle off. Wouldn't it be so much better from were you and I sit, if we didn't end up in places were we actually needed faith? Because faith is the assurance of something we hope for, which by definition means we don't have it right now and we wish we did. And faith is the evidence of that thing that we can't see yet, because all we can see is what we're in the middle of which are our circumstances, and we're hoping for so much more. And yet, as we're going to see shortly that's exactly how God sets things up. You have sin in your life and I have sin in my life, but in and of ourselves we just can't get rid of. We've struggled with it for years and we couldn't' do anything about it until we started putting our faith in Jesus. We couldn't overcome sin or set things right until we put our trust in Jesus. And the same thing's true of the many obstacles we face in life. Perhaps you're someone who's been listening to these programs for a while and you're thinking to yourself, ‘Oh that Berni guy seems to have things all sorted out. What an easy life. He gets to be on the radio and tell us how to get it right.' But you wouldn't believe the challenges and the trials involved in getting out there and doing what Gods called us to do at Christianityworks. The attacks that come against the ministry because Satan doesn't want people hearing about Jesus, he doesn't want us doing what we are doing. The trials when people fail, when the finances are tight, you name it. It's either happened, or it' s going to happen. And just in the same way you face trials, you face temptations, you have mountains that get in your road and stop you from doing the things that God's called you to do. You have sicknesses you have struggles, and people come against you, financial issues – my friend that's what faith is for. Faith is the assurance of things we hope for and the evidence of the things that we just can't see yet. You and I need faith and that's why we're going to be talking about it over the coming weeks on the program.   Big Picture Faith. Are you familiar with that term that saying that someone's lost the plot? What it means is that we've lost sight of were we are going, we've lost sight of the objective. We've managed to get things completely "out of kilter", "out of bounds", or "out of whack" as we as Australians like to say. "Oh man, hasn't he lost the plot!?" And often it happens when we become focused on just one thing in our lives, let's say a single relationship or a single thing that's not going quite right. When we're hurting, we focus on just that one thing that is hurting. Sometimes we lose the plot when we are so focused on making ourselves happy that we forget about everyone and everything else and somehow, the more we try to make ourselves happy the more empty we feel. It seems to me that they one sure way of feeling depressed is trying really, really hard to make yourself happy. So the reason we lose the plot is that we lose sight of the bigger picture, we're so focused on that one thing that we can't stand back. We're busy working hard at life, living life, peddling harder and faster and then the storm strikes especially when there is a head wind blowing and it's slowing us down. It is the easiest thing in the world to lose sight of the big picture, the context, the sense of meaning and purpose and direction that we once seemed to have for our lives and now the harder we go at it, the murkier it appears to get. What was once clear when we were young now seems to be blurry. Sometimes it's like we're living our lives in a fog. You know what I'm on about here right? And then one day you wake up and you think to yourself, I think I've lost the plot! That place right there is a scary place. I've found myself in that situation, when I'm busy working hard, even, working hard doing things for God, none of us is immune to this here. I don't get some exemption certificate from this stuff just because I work in a Christian ministry. This is real life. This is real stuff. What we're talking about this week on the program, in fact over the coming few weeks is faith. It's a phrase, two simple words, “by faith” that appear over and over and over again in the Bible, especially in the 11th chapter of the New Testament book of Hebrews. Now, we need faith for all sorts of things, we need faith in Jesus to be forgiven by God and to be set free to live an eternal life in His presence. We need faith to make it through the trails and the difficult situations and make it to the other side of those. And as it turns out we need faith to get a sense of the bigger picture, to keep the balance and sense of perspective right over our lives. So that we don't loose the plot or so that when we do loose the plot we can pick it up again. Have a listen to this. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible … In other words, by faith we know that everything that was created, was created by Jesus. He is the Word of God that is being referred to there. The worlds, the cosmos, the universe, the little ant that crawls cross the floor, everything … the worlds were created by Jesus, God spoke them into existence through Jesus. "Let there be light.” He said, and there was light! “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear.” And it was so, and God called the dry land Earth, and the waters were gathered together and He called them the Sea's. and God saw that it was good … and on and on. A universe that with all our brilliant technology we can only see part of, and the part that we can see with our radio telescopes is so big, its so vast that it would take light – travelling of course at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second or 300,000 kilometres per second – it would take light 15 billion years to travel from one end of the known universe to the other! Even the nearest star to the earth after the Sun is called Proxima Centauri, it's about 4.6 light years away. Now that doesn't seem too far does it? But if you and I were to hop into a car, say at 100km per hour and travel that distance of 4.6 light years, how long would it take us? Well, just about 7¼ billion years. And that's without any toilet breaks. It's the nearest star after the sun, and the rest are all much, much further away! Why is this important? Here's why. We live on this earth as though this is all there is. Now we know there is a sun up there and it's really big and its really hot and its about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometres away. We know that there is a universe out there that's huge. But day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, we live life really as though they don't exist. We live life as though the only thing that exists is my own "here and now", this instant: what I'm working on, what I'm doing, what I'm trying to achieve, what I'm feeling, what I'm struggling through, what ... Do you see my point? We completely loose sight of the big picture. I see all around me, every time I travel to India, I come back with a fresh realisation that the narrow privileged lives that we lead here in this affluent, blessed country we call Australia, is completely atypical, completely abnormal in the big picture of the rest of the world. And it's in this narrowness that we lose our way; its in this narrowness that we loose the plot. Let's look again at that verse on faith that I read out before. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was made was made form things that are not visible. Faith gives us the context that we need, faith is about knowing in our heart of hearts that there is God out there who made it all, He's so big, so powerful, so intelligent, so loving, so awesome that He created the whole cosmos. Even the bits beyond human science can see. And He placed you and me here on this earth in perhaps the only inhabitable place in the whole universe. That's the big picture. And so instead of telling our God how big our problems are we need to start telling our problems how big our God is. Instead of obsessing about this problem or that disappointment, instead of sweating over the little things in our lives, in faith we can stand back and see the big picture, the God picture, the faith picture. By faith we understand that God made it all. By faith we can rest in this God who loves us so much that He sent us His son to die for us. By faith!   God-Pleasing Faith Now there is a huge part of me I have to tell you that wants so much to please God with everything that I think and everything I feel, and say and do, I really, really, really want to please God. Really I do! But someday it seems that all I have to do to blow it is to wake up and get out of bed in the morning. Does that make sense? You want to do what's right, you know what's right with all your heart you want to please God, but you just can't seem to do it. It's like there is a war going on inside you, you want to do what's right, but every time you want to do what's right, evil intentions are lurking there right over your shoulder, whispering into your ear. Well it's not just me, it's not just you. The apostle Paul who wrote almost half the books in the New Testament he had exactly the same problem and you can read all about it in Romans Chapter 7. So how do we please God? Let's go back to that book towards the end of the New Testament, the book of Hebrews chapter 11, which is where we have been spending out time together today, and let's have a look because there is an answer in there as to how you and I can please God. And the answer isn't working harder at being good. Let's pick it up, Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 4: By faith able offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approval as righteous as God Himself given approval to his gifts. He died but through faith he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken so that he didn't experience death, and he was not found because God had taken for it was the tested before he was taken away that he had pleased God. And without faith, it's impossible to please God for, whoever may approach Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. That's really interesting because back there in the book of Genesis, chapter 4 when we read about Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve's two boys, were not really given a reason why it was that Abel's offering was acceptable to God, but Cain's wasn't. There's a bit of a hint. We're kind of told that there wasn't something quite right in Cain's heart, but that is all we're told. It certainly had nothing to do with physically what he did. Both Cain and Abel brought an offering to God. Cain's was rejected while Abel's was acceptable to God and as a result, out of envy, Cain murdered his brother Abel. So what was the difference between the two. The answer is faith. Its there in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4: By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approvable as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts. He died but through faith, he still speaks. See Abel gave his offering to God in faith. And as God showed through His response to Cain, an offering without faith isn't pleasing to God at all. It's not just the physical act of making a sacrifice, that sacrifice has to come with faith. And again, we read that Enoch had been blessed by God because he's pleased God because of his faith. Executive summary, bottom line, what's God saying here? Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 6: You see without faith, it is impossible to please God. For whoever would approach Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. And it's not just here in the book of Hebrews that we discover the importance of faith in pleasing God. Jesus himself told people the exactly the same thing. When someone asked him, “Lord what do I have to do to be saved?” He answered quite simply, “Believe in me”. How often have you and I worked so hard at pleasing God as though anything we can do, can possibly add to what He has already done for us, and what He's planning on doing? Sometimes I think that we behave as though God is totally completely and utterly depending on you and me to fulfil His plans. As though without us, God's plans for this world are going to fall over in a screaming heap, and God's going to go, "Oh man! What am I going to do?" And so we work so hard, we work hard! And we bring Him the offering and we bring Him the sacrifice. We see all the problems facing us and so we bring in the offering from the field like Cain with little to no faith in our heart. Well, guess what? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Would you please note that word, "impossible"? What it does not say is that without faith you won't please God quite as much through your labours as you would have done if you put a bit of faith in the mix. That's not what it says. The Bible clearly says that without faith it is completely impossible to please God. The Greek words used there for "impossible" mean literally to be completely without strength, impotent, powerless, weak, disabled. That it is unable to be done, it's totally impossible. Why? Because God is God. And He has put us here in this physical world that is removed from His spiritual dimension, yet the spiritual dimension, the God dimension, the presence of God is as real and as present as the nose on my face. The thing is that we just can't see it. Our act of Love, our act of pleasing God is honouring him by believing that He is, that He does exist and that He is in the business of blessing and rewarding those who seek Him. Why does he do things that way? Well, just think about it, God has something of a problem when it comes to eliciting a free will love response from you and me. If we could see God for what He is, if we could see Him face to face in all His power and in all His glory, hey, there would be no free will involved. In the face of that power, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So He removes us from that presence, He puts us in a place where we lay hold of Him, not by seeing Him, but through a layer of adversity we call life. Through a cloud of unknowing, never quite seeing Him clearly in this life. And we lay a hold of Him, we honour Him, we love Him, we serve him, we obey Him by faith. And that is why without faith it's impossible to please God. Ask Cain, ask Abel, they'll tell you all about it, because by faith that story is still being told today. So the next time that you feel the need to work your back side off to please God, remember this, your work isn't so much the thing that pleases Him, it's not about the sacrifice so much, its about you, its about me, its about our faith! When we do what we do in faith, my friend, that is what pleases God.

Resilient Faith - The Book of Hebrews - Chapter 12

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The first few verses of Hebrews Chapter 12 tell us the Christian life is a race… or, more appropriately, a lifelong marathon. After spending all of Chapter 11 giving his readers (both first century Jewish Christians and us today) a remarkable list of Old Testament faith hall-of-famers for our encouragement, the author lets us know how we can run this often-difficult race. In three short verses, he gives us the keys to running this race of living the Christian life successfully. And the best part is, the outcome is not dependent on our performance! To win this race all we have to do is… keep running! Today’s passage will show us how we can do just that!

Pastor Seth Troutt explores Hebrews Chapter 8, focusing on the concept of the New Covenant and the power of a new heart through Jesus Christ.Using personal experiences and scripture, this sermon examines the shift from the Old Covenant to the New, highlighting the direct access believers have to God. As part of our series in Hebrews, Seth explains how the New Covenant, with its promises, grants us a closer relationship with God, free from past practices.Join us to understand the implications of having Jesus as our high priest and how this change impacts our walk with God.00:00 - Introduction09:46 - Copy and Shadow13:06 - The Better Promises28:18 - Obsolete31:30 - From Obsolete to Complete**HOW TO FIND US*** SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YouTube CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/@IronwoodChurchAZFACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/ironwoodchurchaz/ INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/ironwood.church/WEBSITE https://www.ironwoodchurch.org/

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Understanding the Supremacy of Christ: Hebrews Chapter 4 Study Join Pastor Sal as he leads an in-depth study of Hebrews Chapter 4. This insightful sermon addresses the significance of God's word, the importance of faith and obedience, the role of Jesus Christ as our ultimate high priest, and the necessity of striving towards spiritual rest and salvation. Pastor Sal also clarifies key biblical terminologies and corrects common misconceptions, underlining the importance of living a life grounded in scripture, avoiding false doctrines, and understanding the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ for humanity.

Sin is such a funny word. Short – but judgemental. And yet this thing called “sin” lies at the heart of Easter. Jesus died to pay for our sin. So what does that actually mean – “sin”?   Sin By Another Name This week we're still doing a retrospective on Easter and I thought we should ask a question. What makes Easter? Why did God do it? Why did God send His Son to die for you and me? Last week we saw that you and I are so incredibly precious to God. The Psalmist back in Psalm 8 asks the question. He says: I look up your huge skies, dark and enormous, you handmade the sky, the jewellery, the moon and the stars are mounted in their settings. Then I look at little old me and I wonder, why do you bother with us? Why do you take a second to look our way, God? It's a good question. And the answer is that we're so incredibly precious to God. And the more precious something or someone is, the more we do for that something or someone. Sadly in our world today, people pick the wrong things and make them precious. People pick wealth or they pick fame or they pick career or they pick status – always these external things – and they end up sacrificing their lives to them to no avail. But you and I are different. You and I are precious in the sight of God, in God's heart. And Easter is about Jesus on the Cross. Easter is about the most incredible sacrifice; the Son of God crucified, punished on our behalf. We've had a look at that already on the program over the last couple of weeks. But He was punished for you and for me. And for a long time I wondered, why? I mean, why did God go to those lengths? Look at me, look at you – we're not that bad. Okay, we're not perfect, at least I'm not, but isn't the whole ‘Easter, Cross, crucifixion' thing just a bit extreme? Christians talk a lot about "sin". Now for most of my life I thought of "sin" as being this really old-fashioned, stuffy, church concept. I mean, "sin"? Really? These days? Old fashioned, moralising, guilt trips. It belongs to a view of religion of the past that's not relevant today. People are writing books about it. A well known scientist by the name of C. Dawkins wrote a book called "The God Delusion" and someone who was writing that book up said this: The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong but potentially deadly. And part of that is this notion that we have in the world today, that sin is some man-made religious concept. We live in a society that denies sin, whatever that might mean to you. Right? Wrong? Well they're fluid concepts, their circumstantial. It kind of depends what works for you. But the word "sin" – which I, for many years thought of as this stuffy, outdated concept – the word "sin" in the Bible literally means "to miss the mark". Today we say ‘missing the point of life'. And because of the society we live in – the society that puts ‘me' at the centre of my world, puts "you" at the centre of your world – we do whatever feels good to make us better and have more fun and more comfort. Okay, there's some social responsibility, but by and large we live in a selfish world. And in that society we kind of don't notice somehow that sin's going on. We notice the shotgun murders and that sort of thing, but in our lives day by day people deny the concept of sin. There's a wonderful parable called, "the boiling frog syndrome". You've probably heard of it. The notion that if you have some boiling water and put a frog in it the frog will jump straight out because it notices the water is hot. But if you begin with cold water and you gradually, gently heat the water the frog ultimately will die because he doesn't that the water is getting hot and it kills him. Global warming's a bit like that. I mean, we've been denying it for years. Governments and big business have been denying it because it's politically and economically expedient to keep pumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, slowly cooking the earth. It's been obvious but we've denied it. A while ago I went to see Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". Whatever your politics, whatever your views of matters "green" are, it's absolutely a "must see" if you didn't see it. He makes a point that the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes have almost doubled in the past 30 years. The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled in the past decade. Malaria has spread to higher altitudes because of warming in places like the Columbian Andes – 7000 feet above sea level and at least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming by moving closer to the poles. It kind of paints a picture of a world out of control. It's so bent on consuming that we're prepared to destroy the planet. When we look at the facts they're obvious. The whole consumer treadmill, the economy based on greed, the boiling frog syndrome just denies that reality. We behave as though it doesn't exist. We do that with a lot of things. In the west where people are wealthy by global standards we ignore poverty, we ignore the wars and the starvation and the thousands of children that die every day of poverty. We just behave as though they don't exist. They still do but we just ignore them. The point of sin is that it's a bit like that boiling frog syndrome. It's deceptive. Through our selfishness we kind of rationalise; we deny the reality; we stick out heads in the sand and pretend. Well, it's not my problem. I'm not the one getting things wrong. The Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 7 verse 11 writes this. He says: For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. You see, sin is deceptive. In 2 Timothy Chapter 3 verse 13 he writes: Evil men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And Psalm 36 verse 2: With his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. And that's right on the money. We kid ourselves. We try and behave as though sin doesn't exist. Just stop and think about the last 24 hours and say, what did I do to hurt someone? What did I do to step on someone? What did I do to ignore someone? What did I do that ruined their lives and my life? Come on, we are masters of self-deception. It doesn't matter how much we deny it, when we look around the world, around society, around our own lives, sin is alive and well. "Missing the point of life" is alive and well and people are slaves to it like lemmings jumping over a cliff and the price … the price is being robbed of life itself. It's walking around like a living dead. But God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him wouldn't perish but have eternal life. That … that right there is what Easter was all about.   Simply No Excuse I'm going to ask you, have you ever been pulled over by a policeman for speeding. "Driver, do you know why you've been pulled over? Do you realize that you were exceeding the speed limit by whatever it is?" I have, and it's a horrible feeling. And you know there is simply no excuse. Speeding kills – it's as simple as that. Imagine speeding and killing a child coming out of a school, or someone you love or an elderly person crossing the road. Measured against the consequences, speeding is crazy; it's ludicrous; there's just no way you can justify it or you can excuse it, the consequences of speeding is death. Yet most drivers speed every day. That attitude "I've got to get there, just got to get there. I'll save 30 seconds, I'll save 1 minute, I'll save 2 minutes off my journey." That attitude completely misses the point, doesn't it? And that's such a good example of sin. "Sin" means "missing the point". Come on, look at our lives, look at the stuff that we want to descend into – being selfish, being greedy, just lying a little bit, a bit of deception, pompous egos, treading on people, crushing them – and then do you know what we do? We rationalize it. We justify it. We say it's everybody else's fault. They don't measure up to my mark, or they did me wrong, or that person over there hurt me and that's why I had a go at them. Come on! It misses the point and in God's eyes there is simply no excuse. We began the program today with the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 8, looking up at the heavens and the stars wondering, "God who am I that you should even give me a second thought?" The Apostle Paul takes that one step further in Romans Chapter 1 and verse 20, and he writes this: For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power, His divine nature, they've been clearly seen being understood from what's been made, so we are without excuse. In other words, you look around and you can't help but come to the conclusion that God is God. It's like speeding. When we deny God, when we turn away from Him, when we say, "No, no, no, I'm going to live my life buddy", there's no excuse. It's blindingly, glimpsingly obvious. Look around. The fact that God created it all is so obvious; God's majesty and His love and His wonders shine out through all the things He's made. I've said before, we are masters of delusion and so we are. Somehow for years I rationalised it but in my heart of hearts I knew that God was God, I knew that Jesus was the Son of God, but we get used to the fact that our lives are missing the point. We get used to the fact that we're off doing stuff and ignoring God. And then we try even harder to have a life of meaning. We work harder to earn more money or more recognition or to get a better career or … even though in our heart of hearts we know it's never ever going to hit the mark. It's like we've become slaves to it, we've become addicted to this sin, this treadmill, and we're compelled to keep going in the same direction. Put yourself in God's shoes for a moment. He creates you and me out of love, in His own image, and He gives us in this universe on this earth that He's made for us – He gives us the freedom to accept or reject Him. And this freedom comes from His love too. And He watches you and me take our freedom and reject Him and miss the whole point of creation and then suffer the consequences. And we do suffer. Missing the point brings suffering. Sin has its consequences. Loneliness, pain, doubt, isolation, a lostness, hurts, no real sense of identity. We get to a point where we've completely lost sight of the fact that you and I have been created in God's image – to delight in Him. And let me tell you, when God sees us in that state His heart aches for us. I was reading a book in my personal time with God the other day. In the Book of Judges when Israel had rejected God so many times and they came to God because God had sent punishment on them. They were defeated and the Amorites were fighting against them, and God said, "No, forget it, you people have rejected me so many times, go worship your gods, go worship your idols, go and suffer the consequences." Then God looked down upon His people and He saw them suffering and the Bible says He just couldn't help Himself. He had to go and help them. That's what God is like. He loves us. He wants to bless us. And when He sees us suffering the consequences of sin He can't help himself. His heart aches for us. And that's why, just at the right time, when you and I were still powerless to deal with any of that, when we were still busy rejecting God, just at the right time Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. He dragged that Cross to Calvary, He allowed Himself to be nailed to it. He took the burdens, the consequences, the pain of my sin and your sin once and for all. He paid the price that you and I should pay and greater love has no man than to lay down His life for His friends. And whoever believes in Jesus, believes that's exactly what happened there on the Cross of Christ at Easter. They're set free from the burden and the consequences of their sin. If we believe that with our lives we are free to have a relationship with God. We don't have to live under the burden of sin anymore, as slaves to sin with our whole lives missing the point. The moment we believe in Jesus its ground zero, it's a clean slate; it's a start again fresh. When we look at the Cross of Christ and say, "I believe", God our Father says, "My child, I forgive you". When we put our faith in Him the gates of heaven are flung open wide and there's a wild party. You might say, "But Berni, I took that step years ago and look at my life!" And I say to you, have you taken that step with your life. I mean, do you live your life in that reality every day? Come on, that's what Easter is. It's Easter every day because by shedding Jesus blood on the Cross, by His sacrifice, you and I have forgiveness every day. Through that empty tomb you and I have a new life every day – today, tomorrow, the next day, for all eternity. That's it. That's Easter.   A Personal Call Well you know, you and I are looking back on Easter. Here we are, a few weeks past Easter and you might think, why is this guy still yapping on about Easter? Why are we still looking back at Easter? Come on we've had the chocolate, we've had the long weekend. We've moved on, let's get on with the rest of the year. Let's get on with something new and fresh and exciting. But hang on a minute, I just believe that it's Easter every day. I just believe that God wants us to live and walk and breathe and have our being in the reality of the fact that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ and that He suffered and died to pay for my sin and your sin. He took our death, the death that we deserved, on His shoulders and He died that death for us. He rose again and He gave us a new life – a forgiven life, a life eternally in relationship with Him. You see, you and I are so incredibly precious in God's eyes. Do we get that? He loves us so much He's given us this freedom to choose Him or to reject Him. And you know, every day we have that choice in the way we think, where we put our trust, what goes on in our heart, what we do, what we say, everything. Jesus died for every person who's ever lived – for you, for me and for billions of other people. That's a huge thing. He bore all of our sin. Have you done something wrong and you woke up the next day – maybe you've hurt someone, you had an argument, you said something you wish you could take back right? – and you woke up the next day and you realise, you remember back the stupid thing you did and the consequences and the pain and the hurt. You know, you've hurt someone you love, whatever it is, and you just have to live through the consequences of that. It's sin. It's a terrible feeling. You know what I'm talking about. Imagine if you could experience it in one time, the consequences of all the mistakes, every sin you have made in your whole life. How would that feel? It would be unbearable wouldn't it? If we could feel all our sin and the consequences of it in one moment I think it would kill us. It would be unbearable. So now put yourself in Jesus' sandals for a minute. He bares the pain, the punishment and the consequences of all the sins of the whole of the human race for all time at that one place on the Cross. My, how Jesus suffered. We just can't see this as some huge macro act of God in history – it is that but if we restrict it to that we miss the point. Jesus died for the one, He died for me, He died for you to set us free from the slavery of sin, the slavery of living a life that completely misses the point, the slavery of living a life that will end in eternal separation from God. You know the worse bit about slavery? It's the fear, it's the lurking knowledge deep down inside that we're missing the point of our lives. And at the end of the day there will be a reckoning. That makes the life of sin a true life of slavery. In Hebrews Chapter 2 verse 14 it says this: Since we're human, of flesh and blood, Jesus too shared in our humanity so that by His death He might destroy Him who holds the power of death (that's the devil) and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For this reason He had to be made like His brothers and sisters in every way in order that He might pay the price for the sins of the people. How many people live life in the fear of dying? I used to. I don't any more because I know I believe in Jesus. I know that when I die I will go to be with the Lord my God, not because I'm such a great person but because I believe in Jesus. No more fear, no more lurking sense of a life without purpose, a life that's missing the whole point. Paul in Galatians Chapter 5 verse 1 says: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. In other words, the reason Christ did what He did was to give us freedom. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You know, we can run but we can't hide. You and I can pretend that it's not there. We can do the boiling frog thing and say, "Sin's not an issue in my life. There's no such thing any more in this day and age." But sin is a reality, sin is slavery, sin has consequences. We keep on doing those same old, same old, same old things chasing after money or fame, treading on people, hurting people, whinging about people, whatever it is, whatever your brand of sin whatever your Achilles heal is – we keep doing that and it has consequences, it ruins relationships, it ruins our lives and it misses the whole point. I want to ask you again today, have you given your life over to this truth. I mean day by day do you walk, think your thoughts, make your choices in the wonderful knowledge incredible gift of life. Jesus died for you. Jesus paid the price for you. Jesus, here and now is calling you to be free of the slavery of sin and death once and for all by putting your faith in Jesus. Not just a single one-time act but a life lived in the truth and reality that Jesus died for you, that you might be forgiven. Jesus rose from that grave for you so that you might have a life eternal. This is not about taking a guilt trip here. It's about God calling you to Himself through His Son. Do you want that more than anything? Do you want to be close to God? Do you want to be with Jesus for the rest of eternity from this moment forward? Why don't you pray this prayer with me? Father,I've heard the message of Jesus today. I believe that Jesus died on the Cross for me and I want to accept Him as my Saviour, the one who set me free from the slavery of sin. But not just my Saviour, I want to accept Him as my Lord. I give my life, God, into your hands for you to be the Lord of my life above all other things, all other hopes and dreams and desires. Father, I'm so sorry for the things I've done in the past. I turn away from them right now. I want you to fill me up to overflowing with your Holy Spirit. Father give me the new life Jesus died and rose again to give me. I want to know Your peace and Your freedom and Your joy and Your love. I give my life to you in Jesus name. In Jesus name, Amen. This is where life is at. Not some rule-based constricting religion – freedom … freedom from all the things that we are enslaved to that ruin our lives. Freedom from wandering aimlessly through life towards a disastrous end, Freedom from the consequence of our sin and into a life with purpose and meaning and joy and wonder and glory, a life that only gets better and better, a life that goes for all eternity. Will there be trials in this life? Is it tough following Jesus? You bet you. Jesus never promises a bed of roses, He never promises a cake walk. In fact Jesus promises that when we put our faith in Him, there will be trials, there will be people and spiritual forces that come against us. But ultimately putting our faith in Jesus is about a new life. That's it. That's what Easter is all about. That's what Jesus was doing on the cross for me and you. All we need to do is to hear that message and let it sink into our hearts and hold onto that deep inside and never ever let it go. Easter. Jesus. Freedom. Life.

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What is the unforgivable sin?  Pastor Bo delves into an age-old question so that you can have peace and assurance for your salvation.  While looking at Hebrews 6 as well as other scriptures, he uses his typical humor to take us through this weighty topic and help us stand firm in the presence of the doubt and fear the enemy may send our way. (00:00) Knowing Salvation and Avoiding Fear(14:51) Continuing in the Faith(30:50) Understanding Blasphemy and Salvation   www.citylightnyc.com 

Follow the new podcast here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | All platforms ----------------------» For the Neville Goddard listener: Get the 30-Day Unlock God Mode Program «  Unlock God Mode is a 30-day program designed to elevate your manifestation skills and and align you with your deepest desires. Join this tranformative course designed to help you connect deeply with life and achieve your goals with clarity and purpose. Claim the early bird sale (limited-time) at unlockgodmode.org * * * In this lecture, Neville Goddard reaffirms that the only subject he ever truly discusses is the power of imagination—which he equates with God and Jesus Christ. He asserts that man's imagination is vast enough to contain all possibilities, and that no one can experience anything unless they have first walked there in imagination.The Central Teaching: Imagination is GodNeville identifies the eternal body of man as imagination, which Scripture refers to as Jesus. He challenges traditional religious interpretations that limit Jesus to a historical figure, instead presenting him as the personification of divine creative power within every individual.He explains that nothing happens without first being imagined—consciously or unconsciously. Every event in life, from personal circumstances to world affairs, is the outpicturing of imaginal activity. Whether or not one recognizes this truth, imagination is the driving force behind all events.The Power of an Imaginal ActTo illustrate this principle, Neville shares an example of how a lawyer's imaginal act led to a significant real-world event. The lawyer passionately imagined a future scenario while defending a case, and years later, events unfolded exactly as he had foreseen. This highlights Neville's key point:The interval between the imaginal act and its realization may be longer than we remember, leading us to deny our own harvest.He warns that people often fail to recognize the connection between what they once imagined and what later manifests, leading them to dismiss imagination as the cause.Faith is Response to RevelationNeville emphasizes that faith is not about acquiring new knowledge through external means but is instead a response to revelation. The greatest revelation, he asserts, is the realization that imagination is Jesus Christ, the creative power of God.This means:Prayer is simply imagining with feeling and intensity.The Bible is a psychological drama happening within the individual, not a historical record.Accepting this truth allows one to walk "the new and living way" into the Holy of Holies—the realization of divine identity.The Inner Path to GodNeville references the Book of Hebrews (Chapter 10) to describe this new and living way, explaining that:Entry into the Holy of Holies (divine realization) is through the "blood of Jesus."The curtain that separates man from God is the "flesh of Jesus"—one's own sense of self.Upon spiritual awakening, the individual experiences a profound inner event where the body is metaphorically "torn" and they ascend into divine realization.He describes this moment as a lightning bolt splitting the body, revealing a living, liquid gold substance—the true blood of Jesus—which then carries the individual into the Holy of Holies, their own skull, where they merge with God.The Ultimate AwakeningNeville teaches that this journey is about awakening to one's true nature as God. He states that:Everyone will eventually experience this unveiling.It happens in stages—first through the practical use of imagination (the "law") and later through mystical experiences (the "promise").One's ability to experience divine awakening depends on how far they are willing to "walk in imagination."Key TakeawaysYour imagination is God. Everything in your world is a reflection of what you have imagined.You cannot experience what you have not first imagined. Everything unfolds from within.Faith is responding to revelation. Accepting imagination as the creative power of God leads to transformation.The "Holy of Holies" is within you. Entry into divine realization is an inner experience, not an external event.All will ultimately awaken to their divine identity. The journey may be long, but it is inevitable.Final MessageNeville urges his listeners to fully accept the power of imagination, for it is the only true path to transformation and awakening. The moment one truly understands this, they begin walking "the new and living way"—the path of realizing their own divinity. ***Download the free Neville Goddard PDF Guide at manifestwithneville.com - Discover the transformative power of Neville Goddard's wisdom with this FREE 60-page guide on his 12 timeless principles of manifestation and reality creation.★ Follow the podcast for daily lectures from the mystic Neville Goddard ★FREE RESOURCES:• Join the FREE Neville Goddard newsletter• Join the FREE Telegram Channel• Feeling is the Secret • Full Audiobook* * *The James Xander Trip Podcast:• Listen on Spotify• Listen on Apple Podcasts• Listen on YouTubeDIVE DEEPER:• The Unlock God Mode Course• The Infinite Wealth Guided Meditation* * *ABOUT NEVILLE GODDARD:Neville Goddard (1905-1972), was an English writer, speaker and mystic. He grew up in Barbados and moved to the United States of America as a young adult. Neville Goddard was perhaps the last century's most intellectually substantive and charismatic purveyor of the philosophy generally called New Thought. He wrote more than ten books under the solitary pen name Neville, and was a popular speaker on metaphysical themes from the late 1930s until his death in 1972.Possessed of a self-educated and uncommonly sharp intellect, Neville espoused a spiritual vision that was bold and total: Everything you see and experience, including other people, is the result of your own thoughts and emotional states. Each of us dr...

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The Book of Hebrews - Chapter 5 - Resilient Faith

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The Book of Hebrews - Chapter 4 - Resilient Faith - There is a peace, and a rest, that God offers us. How can we experience that rest? Chapter four of Hebrews gives us an idea of what it takes to enjoy rest in God.

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Resilient Faith - The Book of Hebrews - Pt 3 - Hebrews Chapter 3. Why does is matter that Jesus is greater than Moses? In Chapter 3 of Hebrews we are given 2 reasons why, and then two instructions we are to follow as Christians.

In this episode of The Crosswalk Devotional, we examine the quiet yet powerful impact of subtle sin on our spiritual lives. Often, it's the small compromises we make that can lead us away from God's intended path. We’ll discuss how these hidden struggles can drain our strength and disrupt our relationship with Him. By sharing personal stories and biblical wisdom, we’ll highlight the importance of self-reflection and vigilance in our faith. Together, we’ll explore practical ways to recognize and confront these subtle temptations, helping us to regain our spiritual momentum. Join the Conversation: We want to hear from you! Have you faced subtle sins that have impacted your journey? Share your insights with us on social media @LifeaudioNetwork or via email. What steps have you taken to strengthen your faith in the face of distractions?